Banking & Finance

This project comprises of a series of publications, workshops, news articles aiming to contribute to a popular, critical understanding of the banking and finance sector. While there is no shortage of popular books and media coverage of the financial crisis, most of it is severely lacking in a critical analysis of the systemic causes inherent within a corporatised banking and finance sector in a neoliberal, globalised economic context. Government and corporate spin and rhetoric crowd the discourse. Meanwhile, some highly critical research is being carried out by academic experts, but it is often dense and impenetrable. This project fills this gap by presenting a clear and radical analysis of the banking and finance system, showing how it connects to wider socio-economic issues.

It demystifies the sector's structure, complex workings and confusing jargon, and profiles the actors in the sector and exposes their corporate crimes. Its aim is to assist grass roots mobilisations to fight financial injustices. The project builds on Corporate Watch's extremely popular research mapping out London's financial district, Squaring up to the Square Mile, published in 1999.