Finance Watch publishes annual report 2014 | Finance Watch

Finance Watch publishes annual report 2014

Brussels, 1 June 2015 – Finance Watch, the public interest advocacy group dedicated to making finance serve society, has published its annual report for 2014.

Download annual report 2014 (pdf, EN)

The report gives an overview of key issues at stake in European debates in which Finance Watch has been engaged in the year, including: Bank Structure Reform, Long term financing, ELTIFs, Capital Markets Union, MiFID, PRIIPs, Better Regulation, Banking Union and BRRD, Shadow Banking,  MMF, Securities Financing Transactions and TTIP.

Finance Watch’s Secretary General, Christophe Nijdam, said:

“Markets need rules, and rulemaking needs balance. The huge imbalance between financial sector lobbying and civil society remains a serious problem and this is where Finance Watch comes in: our job is to make sure that the interests of civil society and the public are represented to policymakers.”

Finance Watch has a total budget of around EUR 1.9 million, is funded independently and has no links to the financial sector or political parties.

According to a 2014 survey, the financial sector employs 1,700 lobbyists in Brussels and spends at least €120m a year on lobbying the EU to influence and water down financial regulation, outspending other actors by a factor of 30. This is based on a conservative estimate and the real figures are likely to be significantly higher.

We are grateful to all those who supported our work in 2014. Anyone can be a supporter of Finance Watch, by signing up for our free newsletter at http://www.finance-watch.org/friends-newsletter or making a donation at http://www.finance-watch.org/make-a-donation.

For further information please contact:

Greg Ford +322 880 0440 +44 7703 219 222 greg.ford@finance-watch.org

Charlotte Geiger +322 880 0441 charlotte.geiger@finance-watch.org

Go to All press