Making the financial world help the economy : Finance Warch's challenge

In June 2010‚ twenty-two Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) launched a call for action to create an NGO capable of developing a second expert opinion regarding the activities of financial markets. Soon afterwards‚ nearly two hundred national politicians and MEPS across the political spectrum joined them. This initiative resulted in the creation of Finance Watch in June 2011. The new NGO got to work straightaway. It recruited members and increased its activities with the Central European Bank, the European Parliament, national parliaments and financial supervision agencies. It published reports on regulations under discussion in European authorities ; created a comic revealing the lobbying of banks against Basel III and a cartoon explaining the effects of excessive speculation on agricultural raw materials ; and also contributed to the vote by the European Parliament of a text reducing the influence of rating agencies. There is likely to be a fierce battle between the common good and private interests.