Finance

What influence does the financial lobby have over banking regulation and other financial markets?

Stop funding climate disaster

01.11.2022

89 civil society organisations from across the planet denounce corporate capture at the UNFCCC, and demand a new approach to climate finance.

UN climate talks

Co-opting the COP

03.10.2022

The very financial sector that funds pollution through massive investments has been allowed to take care of the problem themselves. It is deeply worrying that groups like the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) have captured the agenda of climate finance at the COP; and urgent to remove them from this privileged role.

UN climate talks

COP26: the biggest finance greenwash event in history

29.10.2021

The climate summit is set to address 'finance flows' to protect us from climate change. But the proposals are developed by the financial industry and full of loopholes. And not only that: big financiers of big polluters, such as BlackRock, Bank of America and Citigroup, will take charge of implementation.

Black rocking the Green Deal

27.11.2020

‘Black rocking the European Green Deal’ is the title of this fourteenth episode, in which CEO researcher Kenneth Haar and Jana Leutner researcher at Change Finance, discuss the Blackrock scandal. Together they published a report called “The BlackRock Model”, in which they uncover the scale of the blunder of the European Commission by granting a contract to BlackRock to give advice on ‘sustainable finance’.

Other climate battles

The BlackRock Model

24.11.2020

The Commission ignored massive conflicts of interest when it hired the world’s biggest asset management fund to investigate the best way to make banking sustainable. “The BlackRock Model”, a report from CEO and Change Finance uncovers the scale of the blunder, and explains why the Commission needs to find a new approach to ‘sustainable finance’.

Can the EIB become the EU Development Bank?

12.11.2020

In this new episode we discuss how it's possible that European taxpayers money contributes to violations of human rights. Xavier Sol, director at Counter Balance discusses the role of the European Investment Bank (EIB) outside of Europe and the bank’s intention to become the ‘EU Development Bank’.

Captured states

A taxing matter: will the German Government finally prioritise EU tax transparency?

02.11.2020

Will the German Government use its EU Presidency to prioritise tax transparency? Time is running out to take action.

Captured states

Take action to stop corporate tax dodging

27.10.2020

Take urgent action to ensure companies pay their fair share of taxes. Amazon, Facebook, and their buddies are using tricks to dodge taxes. A new EU law could change that but it requires the German Presidency of the EU Council to put the issue on the agenda. Sign our petition to demand tax justice now!

Banking regulation

European Commission: Take action to stop revolving doors

01.10.2020

Civil society groups demand action from the European Commission on revolving doors. In a open letter they list proposals that follow on a case in the European Banking Authority, that showed how the Commission is responsible for loopholes.

Other climate battles

Time to block BlackRock

09.07.2020

BlackRock is a major fossil fuel investor. So why has the European Commission given it a key role to provide paid advice on the crucial ‘sustainable finance’ dossier? Documents obtained by Corporate Europe Observatory show the Commission didn’t even consider the conflicts of interest.

Brexit

Post-Brexit EU-UK trade deal based on CETA would be bad news

31.01.2020

The EU-UK trade talks begin with the UK objective to use the corporate-friendly EU-Canada agreement CETA as a template. This is not a good start for democracy nor the public interest.

Financial crisis

Banking regulator scores another own goal

29.01.2020

After letting its Director leave to head finance lobby group AFME, the European Banking Authority chose to nominate a successor who used to be a lobbyist for the same group. That is just of one of the reasons for the European Parliament to reject Gerry Cross as head of the EBA.