The Role of Civil Society in Holding Financial Powers Accountable

Financial power includes the ability to create and allocate credit-based money, to call on government subsidies, to decide which economic projects go ahead, and to determine the intellectual and political agendas for regulation. Regulators, politicians, and market self-regulation mechanisms failed to hold these powers to account throughout the financial crisis. Reform advocates in civil society have struggled to fill the gap in the face of powerful lobbying by the financial industry. Finance Watch was created in 2011 in response to a call from MEPs for a counter-lobby and has established itself as an effective, independent public interest advocate. Its presence highlights a number of ways for reform advocates to coordinate their actions and for policy-makers to help bring financial power to account. These include asking policy-makers to engage more with non-industry respondents, give greater weight to non-industry voices in consultations and increase financial and technical support for public interest advocacy.