Target 10.5: Regulate global financial markets
Improve the regulation and monitoring of global financial markets and institutions and strengthen the implementation of such regulations
Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
Why shareholder democracy is necessary
Regulation is a government function, but the regulated banks are public companies whose lobbying is the documented blocking obstacle. In September 2023 the Bank Policy Institute, American Bankers Association, Financial Services Forum, SIFMA and the U.S. Chamber jointly opposed higher capital rules for banks over 100 billion dollars in assets. BPI launched 'Stop Basel Endgame', the largest media campaign in its history. The American Bankers Association and Independent Community Bankers of America are also the banking industry's largest political contributors by a wide margin. After that campaign, the agencies' March 2026 re-proposal scaled back the 2023 plan to a net reduction in required capital for the largest banks. Bank lobbying thus succeeded in blocking the original rule and shaping its replacement. Shareholder votes on lobbying disclosure and trade-association alignment at JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and peers can remove this obstacle. Regulators must still write and enforce the rules, and conduct itself is not decisive. Owners remove a necessary obstacle, and governments must also act.
How this was scoredNecessary
Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
What civil society organizations are helping owners on this
Coordinated 2025 lobbying expenditure disclosure proposals at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, BlackRock and Visa.
Named among the organisations filing lobbying and political spending disclosure resolutions that drove eight of the ten most supported social resolutions of the 2024 season.
Investors push for more disclosure on corporate lobbying, Trellis, 2024-05
2 campaigns on record
Disclose lobbying expenditures, including payments to the trade associations that lobby on the company's behalf.
Result: Challenged by the companies at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and BlackRock; put to a vote at Visa.
Disclose direct and indirect lobbying policies, the payments made and how they were authorised, and whether lobbying aligns with stated corporate positions.
Result: Truist Financial 41.17 percent, Bank of New York Mellon 38.4 percent, as of 18 May 2024; none reached a majority but all cleared SEC resubmission thresholds.
Investors push for more disclosure on corporate lobbying, Trellis, 2024-05
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is UN Sustainable Development Goals's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.