The Network for Sustainable Financial Markets is an International, non-partisan network of finance sector professionals, academics and others who have an active interest in long-term investing. We believe that the recurring crises recently experienced in our financial markets are not isolated incidents. Rather, this instability is evidence that the financial market system is in need of well thought-out reform so that it can better serve its core purpose of creating long-term sustainable value.
We see a need for fundamental changes to improve financial market integrity and efficiency. Our primary concern today is not that reform efforts will result in the adoption of too much or too little regulation. Rather, we see the greatest peril as inappropriate regulation and governance reforms that fail to address the real causes of financial market instability. While increased transparency, better risk management, additional liquidity and other surface fixes might address the current symptoms, they are not enough to resolve underlying systemic problems. Delay will only make things worse since failure to deal with these deep-rooted design flaws can only mean repetitive, deepening crises with growing economic and social destabilisation. The time to act is now.
The Network’s goal is to foster interdisciplinary collaboration on research and advocacy projects between market professionals, academics and other opinion-leaders. We seek to fill the gaps between existing initiatives, to engage on problems which have received attention but have not still been solved and also to involve many more opinion-shapers than has previously been the case. We also intend that the Network be time-limited – our ultimate goal is to embed the Network’s guiding principles into the approaches used by other entities involved in research and public policy, then dissolve.
Since we bring varying perspectives to this effort and have different views we do not advocate a single course of action. What brings us together is an understanding that recent crises call into question whether our current financial system is sustainable over the long term. We have chosen to use a form of organization that encourage interaction and collaboration between individuals. We believe this will allow people of like mind to most effectively organize around research and advocacy projects. If you concur with our guiding principles, we encourage you to let us know how you can contribute to our efforts by contacting us.
