#NoMoreCrises: Unkept Promises of Reform

The true cost of the 2008 crisis As authorities only just prevented a 2023 repeat of the 2008...

Representation of public interest in banking #2 – Who is challenging finance? Examining the diversity of voices in the design of financial regulation

Defining what is the public interest in the regulation of banking and financial markets is difficult, as this...

Representation of public interest in banking #4 – The banks, the public and the secluded world of the BCBS: who has access?

Bank lobbying around this month’s meeting of the Basel Committee of Banking Supervision shows how far the pendulum...

Better regulation: Why more stakeholder involvement benefits some more than others

The Better Regulation package proposed by the Commission on 15 May 2015 is a response to President Juncker’s...

Grand Theft Europe scandal – one more reason to #ChangeFinance

A constant shower of damning reports on opacity and scandals in the financial sector is the result of...

Hiding in Plain View: Why economists can’t see the obvious coming

The meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago was not a “Black Swan”. It was...

Representation of public interest in banking #3 – What blocks public participation in banking?

The activities of Europe’s banks concern all of its citizens: almost everyone has a bank account (World Bank, 2014),...

Деофшоризация в финансах: как регуляторы ужесточают контроль за низконалоговыми юрисдикциями

В последние годы глобальные регуляторы ведут активную борьбу с уходом компаний в офшоры, стремясь вернуть налогооблагаемые активы в...

10 Years after the Failure of Lehman Brothers: Once more unto the brink

The opportunity for a fundamental realignment of the global financial sector seems to have come and gone. Whatever...

Basel III finalisation comes undone: A proposal that lets down citizens and backtracks on global agreements

Overview The global regulatory framework agreed by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision in December 2017 (Basel III),...

Financial regulation: Small victories on revolving doors

In an unprecedented move to avoid conflicts of interest, the European Parliament rejected the nomination of an ex-lobbyist,...

The so-called “science” of economics could not care less about forecasting crises

A crisis is a sudden degradation: it becomes systemic when it affects an entire system – which system?...

A Paradise for the 0.1%

We should not be surprised at the scale of tax evasion revealed by the Paradise Papers. As the name...

12 propositions for reforming our financial system

12 propositions for reforming our financial system (See also the original version in German) The importance of the...

The stage is being set for another financial crisis

2008: A Crisis We Should Have Learned From In 2008, the world experienced the worst financial crisis since...

Blocking complexity – how complex regulation blocks public interest representation

Banking regulation in Europe and around the world is dominated by technical and expert rule-making and enforcement. In...

The Better Regulation restaurant

Setting the table for Better Regulation? When Frans Timmermans presented the Better Regulation Package in May, he used the analogy...

Accounting for influence: how the Big Four are embedded in EU tax avoidance policy

In this blog article, Corporate Europe Observatory’s Vicky Cann summarizes the findings of their new report “Accounting for...

New trade deals restrain governments on financial regulation

Ten years after the 2008 crisis, we are still not protected from new financial crises. Yet, the CETA...

Brexit and financial services: What is at stake for citizens?

The current EU financial regulation is by no means perfect, and it certainly cannot afford any risk of...

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