for a General Assembly. During the year, the General Assembly is represented by the Board of Directors. The Board comprises eight Directors including six elected by and from the General Assembly (four Member organisations and two individual Members) and two independent Directors (“external personalities”). Members of the Finance Watch board of directors as of October 2020: Chair: Alexandra Andhov, University of Copenhagen Vice-chair: Marek Hudon, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium Rachel Oliver, Positive Money Erwan Malary, Secours Catholique Rainer Geiger, Attorney-at-law Nadine Strauss, University of Oxford Patricia Suárez, ASUFIN (Asociación de Usuarios Financieros) Anna Maria Romano, FISAC/CGIL The organization’s budget has as its main sources project funding from the European Union and grants from several charitable foundations: Adessium Foundation, Fondation pour le progrès de l’homme, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Better Markets, Open Society Initiative for Europe, as well as individual donations and members’ fees and contributions. Principles The declared mission of Finance Watch is “to strengthen the voice of society in the reform of financial regulation by conducting advocacy and presenting public interest arguments to lawmakers and the public as a counterweight to the private interest lobbying of the financial industry”. The organization states it follows six principles in the pursuit of this mission: The role of the financial industry (allocating capital, managing risk and providing financial services) has strong public interest implications. The primary role of finance is to allocate capital to productive use. Finance must serve the real economy, not the inverse. Banks are legitimate in pursuing profits to ensure their sustainability, but profits should not harm public interest. Credit risk should not be transferred to society at large. The real economy needs to have access to capital and financial services, in a sustainable, equitable and transparent manner. National partners Finance Watch has national partners in Germany (Bürgerbewegung Finanzwende, headed by Gerhard Schick) and France. See also Bank regulation Financial regulation Lobbying in the European Union References External links Finance Watch Homepage Finance Watch – a lobby to break the lobbies - English translation of an article from der Tagesspiegel - 23 February 2012 Finance Watch, les transfuges rebelles de la finance - Article on Finance Watch on Slate.fr (in French) - 11 February 2013. Finance Watch keeps an eye on markets - short article on the Trade Stock Markets website - 26 October 2012 (Renewed link - 26 October 2017). Group launched to parry EU banking lobby (archived) - Financial