Finance Watch publishes its Annual Report 2025
Finance Watch’s 2025 Annual Report outlines the organisation’s key activities and outcomes for the year ending 31 December 2025. It also reflects the continued evolution of its membership and team.
The Blog Financial reform for EU citizen
2025 saw geopolitical tensions and mounting economic pressures impact financial policy across Europe. A focus on competitiveness, security and administrative simplification, shaped the discussion, reducing the space for work on sustainability, resilience and social priorities.
Despite these challenges, Finance Watch upheld its mission to ensure finance serves the common good. We focused our efforts where our expertise mattered most, supporting fair and inclusive access to essential financial services, advancing responsible financial flows, promoting financial stability, helping enable sound public financing, and addressing the effects of digitalisation on consumers and markets.
In 2025, we contributed research, analysis and commentary on regulatory and supervisory processes. Mindful of broader economic narratives, Finance Watch emphasised an approach to competitiveness that incorporates stability, environmental stewardship and social inclusion, critical during times of rapid technological and economic change.
Through extensive publications and timely outreach, we offered clear, evidence-based input to strengthen societal perspectives in debates that increasingly emphasised short-term priorities over long-term vision. Collaboration with our members, civil society partners and academic experts remained central to these efforts each step of the way.
In this spirit, Finance Watch was proud to host the Finance for Society Forum in December, our flagship biennial event. Amid renewed calls for deregulation, the Forum provided an important space for dialogue on how financial reform must support stability, sustainability and social justice. Through insightful keynotes, collaborative workshops and meaningful exchanges among civil society representatives, academics and financial professionals, participants explored how to align our strategies for increased collective impact. The Forum reaffirmed the importance of shared reflection and collaboration in advancing the public interest in financial regulation.
As 2025 came to a close, we also prepared for an important leadership transition. Following a careful selection process led by the Board of Directors, Isabelle Buscke assumed the role of Secretary General on 1 January 2026. With long-standing experience in EU consumer advocacy and decade-long involvement as a Finance Watch member representative, Isabelle’s deep knowledge of our mission and dedication to the public interest ensures the organisation is well-positioned to advance its priorities.
Looking ahead, the coming years will require civil society to develop ambitious strategies to counter deregulatory trends. Finance Watch will remain unwavering in its commitment to rigorous analysis and transparent engagement, helping ensure that Europe’s financial system supports people’s well-being, the environment and a resilient future.
We couldn’t have done this alone! We are grateful to our members and donors for their ongoing support. In 2025, Finance Watch worked with more than 100 members from 20 European countries to put the public interest at the forefront of EU policymaking.
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