Finance as a driver of privatisation

Abstract

This article discusses the accumulation of private financial assets and the pressure on public budgets as powerful drivers of privatisation. Financial investors are the central actors in this process, which is developing within a framework of increasingly finance-led capitalism. Financial investors are the main beneficiaries and strong promoters of the worldwide move towards pension system privatisation. With financial assets growing as a result of upward income redistribution and pension reform, traditional institutional investors are finding it difficult to generate attractive profits for their clients, and this calls for financial innovation. The activities of innovative financial investors have a twofold impact on privatisation and privatised sectors: (i) private equity firms are opening up new areas for the privatisation of public assets and services, and (ii) the ‘shareholder activism’ of hedge funds is making it increasingly difficult to meet public service obligations in privatised sectors. The EU is not countering, but rather stimulating and supporting these developments. To avoid further destabilisation and social polarisation, social resistance and political intervention are necessary, in both financial markets and public services.