Melissa Jones: page needs update

2012-03-27T08:51:14Z

page needs update

Sharon Beder: New Entry

2008-01-29T22:33:11Z

New Entry

New page

The Financial Leaders Group (FLG) was formed in 1996 during the negotiations for the [[Financial Services Agreement]] (FSA) by the US-based [[Coalition of Service Industries]] (CSI) and [[British Invisibles]]. The group includes financial leaders from Europe, North America, Japan and Hong Kong representing such banking giants as Barclays, Chase Manhattan, Goldman Sachs, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi. FLG broadened support for financial services deregulation and played a key role in reaching the 1997 Financial Services Agreement.<ref>Sharon Beder, ''Suiting Themselves: How Corporations Drive the Global Agenda'', Earthscan, London, 2006, pp. 138-40.</ref>

FLG consists of two tiers: a high level group of CEOs and chairpeople of corporations, supported by a Financial Leaders Working Group with lower level corporate executives. FLG relies on the power of this coalition of corporate heavy weights in its high level group to have influence:'The unanimity in the Financial Leaders Group became a message to governments that the US and European financial community wanted meaningful liberalization and a substantial success, and that the negotiators should co-operate to achieve it. The strategy clearly worked.'<ref>Erik Wesselius, [http://www.tni.org/reports/wto/wto4.pdf Behind GATS 2000: Corporate Power at Work], Amsterdam, Transnational Institute, May 2002, p. 7</ref>

The formation of FLG was encouraged by EU Trade Commissioner [[Leon Brittan]]. During the negotiations Brittan, who had ‘learned from the negotiations the importance of the American private sector in advising the US administration on deal-making’, encouraged ‘the European private sector to make contact with their counterparts across the Atlantic so as to build up a partnership in favour of a permanent deal.’ <ref>Leon Brittan, ''A Diet of Brussels: The Changing Face of Europe'', London, Little, Brown and Company, 2000, p.131.</ref>

The creation of FLG was also ‘spurred by the [[World Economic Forum]], which has been the catalyst for key international meetings among US and EC negotiators, and business representatives.’<ref>Robert Vastine, [http://waysandmeans.house.gov/legacy/trade/105cong/2-26-97/2-26vast.htm Hearing on World Trade Organization Singapore Ministerial Meeting], Congress Subcommittee on Trade of the House Committee on Ways and Means, 26 February 1997</ref>

==People==
*[[Leon Brittan]], initiator.
*[[Andrew Buxton]], first co-chair.
*[[Ken Whipple]], first co-chair.

==References==
<references/>

← Older revision		Revision as of 08:51, 27 March 2012
Line 15:		Line 15:
	==References==		==References==
	<references/>		<references/>
		+	[[Category:Financial sector lobbying]]

Financial Leaders Group - Revision history

Melissa Jones: page needs update

Sharon Beder: New Entry