Thierry Philipponnat – Secretary General of Finance Watch

We asked Thierry, what are the positives and what are the risks in the international financial architecture for mobilising and using finance effectively for development? Thierry argues that the priority is to get the financial system back on track, as large banks are currently providing very little capital to society and the productive economy. There are two steps to achieving this: (1) Large banks need to direct necessary capital to the real economy, and (2) Basel III needs to be addressed, which provides a big disincentive to lend to developing countries/entities. He argues we need to start discussing a potential Basel IV and convince regulators to change the way loans to developing countries are accounted for in terms of capital requirements.