EU Financial Reforms
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News EU Financial Reforms
Sticking up for UNCTAD
19-04-2012
“The financial sector should serve the public interest again. Regulation of financial services has to be done in conjunction with the reform of trade agreements. UNCTAD, the UN body for trade and development, is the preferred organisation to monitor this process in the interest of developing countries.” In support of UNCTAD, senior researcher Myriam Vander Stichele of SOMO will address the thirteenth UNCTAD conference with similar words in Doha, Qatar on Thursday.
New issue of EU Financial Reforms newsletter
30-03-2012
WEED and SOMO just issued another edition of the Newsletter on EU financial reforms. It covers many financial reform processes and events, including the draft report by the European Parliament (just released!), which affect people all over Europe and in the world as the editorial explains.
Dutch financial institutions speculate in food markets
23-12-2011
On the eve of Christmas, the Dutch TV program Zembla broadcast the documentary Trade in Hunger, focusing on the activities of Dutch financial institutions on the derivates market in staple foods such as corn, grains, and sugar. This TV programme is based on the new SOMO report ‘Food Markets in Dutch. Dutch banks and pension funds in agricultural derivatives markets’, published today, revealing the extent to which the largest Dutch banks and pension funds are active on food derivatives markets.
Feeding the Financial Hype
06-12-2011
A new report, Feeding the Financial Hype, is released today by SOMO. The report highlights growing evidence that dramatically increased financial investments in commodity derivatives markets over recent years have caused food prices to soar. This has a negative impact on the poorest people, who spend up to 80 percent of their income on food.
Lack of vision in the EU’s financial reforms
02-11-2011
On the eve of the G20 Summit in Cannes, SOMO has analysed the European Union’s financial reform process, agreed on by the G20, in its new report “The missing dimension. How European financial reforms ignore developing countries and sustainability”. SOMO concludes that the EU’s financial reforms have been not only much too slow and too weak – aggravating the debt and bank problems in the Eurozone.
The failure of financial reforms through undemocratic means
30-10-2011
New issue of the EU Financial Reforms newsletter. Just before the G-20 Summit on 3-4 November 2011 in Cannes, the global financial system was once again at a state of crisis. Serious and escalating problems are coming from the Eurozone and European banks that own bonds from heavily indebted European countries. This issue of the Newsletter provides a brief overview of how the Euro crisis and bank crisis have so far been (mis)handled at European level. It also reports on one step in the right direction: an official proposal by the European Commission (EC) to impose a financial transaction tax (FTT) at EU or Eurozone level. In contrast, another new long awaited EC proposal for better control over financial markets (MiFID) fails to deal particularly with food speculation and dis-functioning of the markets as seen during the Euro crisis.
European Commission’s proposal for financial markets lacks teeth
20-10-2011
New rules proposed today by the European Commission will shed light on betting on food commodities by financial traders, but will not do enough to prevent speculation from fuelling high and volatile food prices. The warning comes from environment and development groups in a joint reaction to the new draft Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) and accompanying regulation.
Making trade and finance work for people and the planet
23-06-2011
On 22-23 June 2011, UNCTAD organizes a public symposium about ‘Making Trade and Finance Work For People and The Planet’. SOMO’s Senior researcher Rens van Tilburg is attending and contributing based on the many related research SOMO has been undertaken recently.
New issue EU Financial Reforms newsletter
02-05-2011
This newsletter explains how, during the past two months, the links between the financial sector and monetary, economic, fiscal and social policy have become increasingly visible. The burden of the crisis is now being further transferred to governments, citizens and workers. While various large European banks were making profits again, countries, which had taken on the debt of their banks and suffered from the economic crisis, were cutting (social) public spending.
New issue EU Financial Reforms newsletter
17-02-2011
The new issue of the newsletter on EU financial reforms explains how finally, EU regulations to deal with the financial ‘casino’ and the shadow banking system are being discussed … to a certain extend.
Business as usual
07-02-2011
In contrast with the current wide-ranging financial reform agenda in the European Union (EU), the EU continues to liberalise a wide range of risky and non-risky financial services in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and other Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) as if the financial crisis never happened. In a new SOMO publication SOMO identifies specific examples on how new EU regulations are in contrast with the pre-crisis model that is still being applied in the GATS negotiations, the Cariforum-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), and the EU-South Korea FTA.
How European Financial Sector Reforms affect Developing Countries
12-11-2010
The currency wars which were hotly discussed at the G20 are a typical example of the problems faced by developing countries, according to a new SOMO discussion paper. This paper analyses the financial sector reforms enacted upon by the European Union (EU) from the perspective of developing countries and proposes remedies to prevent potential problems.
Fixing Global Finance
21-10-2010
The G20 Finance ministers meet in Gyeongj (South-Korea) from 22 to 23 October 2010 to prepare the G20 Summit in November where important decisions on financial reforms should be taken. A new report by Kavaljit Singh provides a critical analysis of the financial system and the financial crisis from a civil society perspective, which is still too little heard in official decisionmaking like the G20.
New issue EU Financial Reforms newsletter
14-10-2010
A new issue of the Newsletter on EU Financial Reforms provides you with the necessary background in time before the EU Council of Ministers meet on 19 October 2010, which will be preparing for the G20 meetings of the G20 Ministers of finance on 22-23 October and the G20 Summit on 11-12 November.
Seminar to curb food speculation
22-09-2010
Banks, hedge funds and pension funds are betting on food prices in the financial markets, causing drastic price swings in staple foods such as wheat, maize and cocoa. Heavy lobbying from the financial world is undermining strict regulation to curb this financial speculation on food. On 20 September SOMO co-organised a training and strategy seminar in Brussels for capacity building of NGOs to curb speculation in food. Also on 21 September, SOMO spoke at the hearing of the European Commission on commodity and energy derivatives. More civil society organisations willing to engage in this debate are welcome to join.
European banks provide fuel for the conflict in Sudan
20-09-2010
This week president Obama is attending a UN summit on Sudan to direct attention to the ongoing conflict and humanitarian crisis in Darfur. Last year ING, BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank together owned almost €150 million of shares in PetroChina, one of the most important players in the oil industry in Sudan fuelling the conflict. This alarming example in the today published SOMO publication ‘Investing Responsibly: A Financial Puzzle’ reveals the severe limitations of Sustainable Asset Management in the financial sector. The SOMO study into the investment policy of European banks shows that a coherent application of CSR policies to all business activities is lacking and their level of transparency is still a far cry from reality.
Towards a Global Finance System at the Service of Sustainable Development
21-05-2010
The financial crisis - originated in developed countries - has severely impact on emerging economies and developing countries. In some countries, poverty and unemployment have increased dramatically as a result of the crisis. The project ‘Towards a Global Finance System at the Service of Sustainable Development’ is implemented in January 2010 by SOMO and five other European NGOs (and coordinated by WEED). The project aims at ensuring that European economic stimulus packages remain coherent with development concerns and EU development policy and with Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The project will monitor and inform about the development impact of the financial crisis as well as current proposed financial reforms. A quarterly newsletter is part of the project.
Financial agricultural markets deserve more attention in financial reforms
22-04-2010
On the eve of the meeting of the G-20 Ministers of Finance in Washington on 23 April, SOMO is publishing Financing Food. Financialisation and Financial Actors in Agriculture Commodity Markets. The study focuses on how derivative markets and financial speculation in agricultural commodities work. SOMO demonstrates how the futures market for agricultural products, in particular, has changed and is being disrupted by new speculators, growing index funds and commodities funds. This can have an influence on food prices, which can rise as a result, making food too expensive for the poor in developing countries.
Critical overview SOMO on G-20 and EU financial reforms
03-09-2009
In preparation of the G-20 meeting in Pittsburg, Ministers of Finance and central bankers of the countries that are member of the G-20, including the Netherlands, are meeting on 4-5 September in London. SOMO raises some critical discussion points on how far the financial system is being reformed towards better financing of more social and environmental friendly activities.
