Bank Lobbying Differences in Lobbying Behaviour of Traditional and Ethical Banks Fabian Hartl (11195800) June 23, 2017 Master Thesis Political Science – Political Economy Research Project ‘Political Economy of Financial Crises’ Supervisor: Dhr. Dr. J.G.W. (Jasper) Blom Second Reader: Dhr. Dr. M.C. (Marcel) Hanegraaff Table of Contents Acronyms .................................................................................................................................. 2 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 3 2. Literature Review & Theoretical Framework .................................................................. 7 2.1 Literature Review: Bank Lobbying ................................................................................. 7 2.2 Theoretical Framework: Bank Lobbying as a Function of Two Factors ......................... 9 Organizational Characteristics ............................................................................................... 9 Overall Approach to Banking .............................................................................................. 11 3. Conceptual Framework ..................................................................................................... 12 3.1 Definitions...................................................................................................................... 12 Lobbying .............................................................................................................................. 12 Traditional vs. Ethical Banks ............................................................................................... 12 4. Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 15 5. Data Analysis ...................................................................................................................... 17 5.1 Traditional Banks ........................................................................................................... 17 ING Bank ......................................................................................................................... 17 Rabobank ......................................................................................................................... 24 5.2 Ethical Banks ................................................................................................................. 29 Triodos Bank .................................................................................................................... 29 ASN Bank ........................................................................................................................ 35 6. Comparison of Traditional & Ethical Bank Lobbying .................................................. 40 7. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 48 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 50 Appendix:................................................................................................................................ 61 1 Acronyms BBA British Banking Association BCBS Basel Committee on Banking Supervision BIS Bank of International Settlements BVPA De Beroepsvereniging voor Public Affairs (Dutch Association for Public Affairs) CSR Corporate Social Responsibility NVB Nederlandse Vereniging van Banken (Dutch Banking Association) DUFAS Dutch Fund and Asset Management Association EACB European Association of Cooperative Banks EBA Euro Banking Association EC European Commission EDIS European Deposit Insurance Scheme EP European Parliament ESG Environmental, Social and Governance EU European Union FeBelFin Belgian Banking Association GABV Global Alliance for Banking on Values GRI The Global Reporting Initiative IMF International Monetary Fund NGO Non-Governmental Organisation OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development SDGs Sustainable Development Goals SIF Social Investment Forum SRM Single Resolution Mechanism SSM Supervisory Mechanism UN United Nations UNEP United Nations Environment Programme 2 1. Introduction The global financial crisis that started in 2007 was the result of a range of problems. In particular, widespread regulatory failure is widely regarded as one of the important causes of the crisis (BIS 2008; IMF 2009). Notably, financial industry actors have been greatly involved in weakening national and international financial regulation (Chalmers 2017). Indeed, regulatory failure is frequently attributed to excessive lobbying and undue influence of financial industry actors (Igan et al. 2009; Mattli & Woods 2009). As a result, the recent global financial crisis has given rise to many new regulations in the banking industry on both national and international level. However, bank lobbying is often linked to weakened banking regulations, especially in the run-up to the financial crisis. It is therefore not surprising that the term lobbying sometimes has a negative connotation for the wider public. Nevertheless, the financial sector is complex and thus lobbying by banks has the potential to provide policy-makers with valuable knowledge and expertise. Hence, bank lobbying can serve the public interest by promoting and ensuring the financial stability of the economy through domestic and global financial regulations. However, without transparency and accountability of the lobbying activities as well as the legislative decision-making processes, bank lobbying can also harm the public interest. Despite growing interest of scholars in bank lobbying activities following the recent global financial crisis as well as concerns about privileged access to legislators and undue influence over the financial legislative process, little research had focused on the determinants of bank lobbying. Little is known what factors explain why some banks decide to lobby financial regulation in order to shape regulatory outcomes while others do not (Chalmers 2017). In particular, research had primarily focused on lobbying efforts of certain kinds of banks. Especially traditional banks are the main focus of research on bank lobbying. Traditional banks offer a broad range of products and services and therefore play an important role as an intermediary in the financial system. In contrast to lobbying by traditional banks, the lobbying behaviour of ethical banks has not been analysed yet. Ethical banks, at their core, are concerned with the social and environmental impacts of their products and services. Nevertheless, environmentally and socially conscious business practices alone do not distinguish ethical banks from traditional banks. Similarly, both types of banks are regulated by the same authorities and they have to follow the same rules and regulations. So far, no study has yet been undertaken to explain possible differences in 3 lobbying behaviour of traditional and ethical banks. In order to fill this gap in scholarly research, this master thesis seeks to answer the following research question: What factors explain differences in lobbying behaviour of traditional and ethical banks? The research question of this research project cannot be answered all at once. Therefore, the following sub-research questions will allow this study to answer the main research question in a step-by-step manner: 1. What are traditional and ethical banks lobbying for? 2. How do traditional and ethical banks lobby? 3. Why do traditional and ethical banks lobby? Regarding the first sub-question, asking ‘what’ traditional and ethical banks are lobbying for enables one to gather specific information about a bank’s lobbying position(s). For example, one can assume that ethical banks actively contribute to the development of a socially and environmentally responsible and sustainable banking sector. By contrast, traditional banks are expected to lobby for keeping the status quo or perhaps for weakened banking regulations. Regarding the second sub-question, asking ‘how’ traditional and ethical banks lobby enables one to better understand how the banks are internally organised as well as the way they lobby. For instance, some banks may not have a particular strategy on lobbying including on legislative processes. In addition, lobbying transparency might be part of ethicalness and thus different to the transparency level of traditional banks. Consequently, finding out ‘how’ a bank organises its lobbying activities plays an integral part in understanding possible differences in lobbying behaviour of traditional and ethical banks. Regarding the third sub-question, asking ‘why’ traditional and ethical banks lobby helps one to better understand the necessary differences that explain the lobbying activities of banks. This sub-question plays an important empirical part of the research project because it examines the motives for lobbying as stated by the banks. Advancing a novel theoretical framework, this thesis claims that the decision to pursue lobbying activities is a function of two factors: banks’ organizational characteristics and banks’ overall approach to banking. Factors that explain differences in lobbying behaviour of traditional and ethical banks are therefore two-fold. Firstly, organizational 4 characteristics, like financial resources and international banking activity, impact a