European Interest Groups in Global Financial Governance: What Role for an Evolving Interest Ecology?

It is also widely acknowledged that interest group activity can have important impacts on both the shape and conduct of financial regulatory policy. This article analyzes how the changing the ecology of interest groups based in Europe may be affecting Europe’s role in global financial governance. It uses qualitative and quantitative data on private sector mobilization to policy consultations, as well as semi-structured interviews with private sector associations. Based on this work, it analyzes the shifting EU interest group ecology in the context of European financial regulatory policymaking, and compare this situation to that in of other regulatory jurisdictions.

The comparison of interest group mobilization in the EU, the USA and in transnational financial regulatory bodies shows how EU financial regulatory policymaking is subject to a unique set of constraints.  In a final step, this article establishes the extent to which European-based interest groups have involved themselves in recent financial regulatory debates in non-EU jurisdictions. By focusing on key financial regulatory debates at the US and transnational levels, this allows an assessment of the extent of ‘indirect, private’ EU power projection through the mobilization of interest group mobilization in non-EU jurisdictions.