New from McGill-Queen’s University Press
Policing the Banks
Accountability Mechanisms for the Financial Sector
By Maartje Van Putten
“Remarkable and pioneering.”
Peter H. Sand, University of Munich
“Frank and candid, with exceptionally informative quotes from officials inside and outside of the World Bank.”
Robert Goodland, Enviromental Advisor,
World Bank Group, 1978-2001
In store date – 15 December 2008
“This book is about the opportunities that citizens of the globe today have to express their problems and protect their rights when foreign direct investment of the financial world impacts upon their lives.” Maartje Van Putten
From 1999 to 2004 Maartje van Putten served as a member of the World Bank's Inspection Panel. Using personal experience and extensive interviews with principal decision-makers and stakeholders in the Panel's work, she chronicles the history of accountability in the World Bank and other major financial entities.
Describing how formerly secretive financial institutions have been slow to accept responsibility for the consequences of their investments - especially the problems that can result from projects in developing countries - she shows that financing institutions can cause significant social and environmental damage and argues that new accountability mechanisms are necessary to reduce or prevent such damage. Because such institutions operate on a global scale, only semi-judicial accounting mechanisms can provide the necessary accountability. It is time for the private financial sector to follow multilateral financial institutions in creating independent mechanisms, mediation procedures, and access to decision makers for people harmed or potentially harmed by projects financed by their institutions.
Policing the Banks is a passionate plea for global accountability for all powerful financial players - including the transnational private banks that are now entering the scramble for profits from development projects in the third world.
The World Resources Institute and Center for International Environmental Law will host a launch for Policing the Banks on Monday, December 15, 2008, 3:30 – 5:00 pm, at the World Resources Institute, 10 G Street NE, Suite 800, Washington, DC.
Maartje Van Putten was a member of the European Parliament (1989-99) and the World Bank Inspection Panel (1999-2004), and is currently a part of the Independent Review Mechanism of the African Development Bank.
Policing the Banks
Accountability Mechanisms for the Financial Sector
By Maartje Van Putten
International studies, economics
$34.95 CDN / USD paper
978-0-7735-3402-5
6 x 9, 520 pages
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