Alter-EU believes that the EC did not have the voice of civil society to draw the future of the financial system. Alter-EU is the European NGOs (Alliance for Transparency and Ethics Regulation in the field of lobbying in the EU) which brings together 160 civil society organizations, unions, academics and public relations are concerned about the growing influence of business lobbyists in the EU political agenda.
Alter-EU report entitled “A Commission in captivity, the role of the financial industry in the development of EU regulations, claiming that the Executive arm of the Union depends almost exclusively on the financial industry vision, before, during and even after the outbreak of the international financial crisis.
According to the author of the report, the study of important financial issues in various fields such as banking regulations, hedge funds, rating agencies, free of tax or accounting standards, which show how the financial sector has actively participated in the design of policies that have contributed to the current financial instability.
“Regulation is playing can to facilitate business, but failed to protect our savings and our pensions. If the Commission wanted to restore confidence in our financial system, should be free from the yoke of partial advice,” said Paul Clerk, steering committee member of Alter-EU. Currently there are 19 groups of experts to advise the European Commission on financial matters. The financial experts of this sector exceeded those academics, trade unions and civil society groups in a ratio of four to one. According to Alter-EU report, even exceeding the number of officers in charge of financial policy.
The European Commission in late May introduced a new model of financial supervision based on reports that Duran Barrios proposed instructed the High Level Panel, chaired by former Governor Jacques de Larose Bank of France. Larose was also present during the wave of structural adjustment in the eighties as head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Currently he is the director of French bank BNP Paribas.
One of the most controversial members of this group is Callus McCarthy, head of UK Financial Services Authority between 2003 and 2008; the organization was criticized for not predicting the bank Northern Rock disaster. Other members with ties to the financial institutions involved in this crisis are Rainer Maseru (Lehman Brothers), Omar Issuing (Goldman Sachs) and Onto Roding (CitiGroup).
Major contributions Larose report is to create a new body, the European Council of systemic risk, able to detect bubbles or risk situation in certain sectors that could lead to financial and economic crisis in the future.