Press releases

EESC hearing on civil society and financial regulation

28 November 2011: Finance Watch SecretaryGeneral Thierry Philipponnat today gave evidence at a public hearing of the European Economic and Social Committee entitled “The role of civil society in financial regulation”. The hearing was organised by the Committee’s ECO section (Economic & Monetary Union & Economic and Social Cohesion) following an EESC decision in January to [...]

Finance Watch announces new staff hires

18 November 2011: Finance Watch today announces that Benoît Lallemand and Frédéric Hache have been appointed as Senior Research analysts, and Sylvie Delassus has been appointed Head of Operations. Finance Watch is a non-profit public interest association dedicated to making finance work for the good of society. Benoît Lallemand has 10 years’ experience in the [...]

Finance Watch welcomes supervision of bank deleveraging

27 October 2011: Finance Watch is pleased that EU leaders have called on bank supervisors to protect the real economy from bank deleveraging; this is a topic we raised in an open letter to them last week. “By asking bank supervisors to ensure that the flow of credit to the real economy is maintained, EU [...]

Open letter to EU leaders – supervise bank deleveraging

19 October 2011: Finance Watch today asked EU leaders to take measures to protect the real economy in case new bank rules cut off the supply of credit. When EU leaders meet in Brussels on Sunday they will discuss a five-point plan for stability and growth put forward last week by President Barroso. The plan [...]

Comment on EU permanent ban on use of naked CDS

19 October 2011: Finance Watch welcomes news that the EU is to make the ban on naked use of credit default swaps (CDS) permanent, after Council and Parliament negotiators yesterday announced a ban on the so-called naked use of CDS with an opt-out to allow the hedging of certain correlated risks. “We are delighted that negotiators [...]

Finance Watch supports EC call for higher bank equity

14 October 2011: Finance Watch calls on governments to support the call by EC President José Manuel Barroso for higher bank equity capital while protecting the real economy through careful oversight of bank deleveraging. Press Release

ECON Committee – Finance Watch evidence on CRD4

12 October 2011: Finance Watch Secretary General, Thierry Philipponnat, yesterday gave evidence on the effects of CRD4 to the European Parliament’s ECON Committee for Economic and Monetary affairs. A copy of his speech is available for download. To see a video of the hearing, click here. Scroll forward to 15.56 to see Thierry speak.

Finance Watch’s first staff appointments

3 October 2011: Finance Watch today announces its first staff appointments. Joost Mulder has been appointed Head of Public Affairs and leads Finance Watch’s advocacy work in Brussels. Joost is well-known in Brussels, having worked for four years at a leading public affairs firm on behalf of financial industry clients, and three years before that [...]

Finance Watch is recruiting

Finance Watch is recruiting now – see Vacancies in the Get involved section for full details. We are looking for talented professionals with a significant work experience and a proven track record in one of the following areas: - Finance, banking, insurance, financial markets, investment products, asset management, market infrastructures or related regulatory issues. - Communication (press, [...]

Position paper on sovereign CDS

Finance Watch has published the first in a series of short position papers where it highlights situations where a private interest is disguised as a public interest argument. Private interests have a legitimate and useful role to play in society as long as they are pursued openly and honestly. Finance Watch believes that when a [...]