Informational Obsession, Opinion Control and Freedom of Expression in Financial Regulation – Some Critical Perspectives

The theoretical underpinnings of financial regulation have led to an obsessive quest for transparency. This has not only generated a gradual increase in disclosure requirements, but has also generated some other unintended consequences, such as structural conflicts of interests, which affect the modes of information (and opinion) production of influential actors. Credit rating agencies, for example, have also in their own right raised new regulatory concerns. Within this wider context, this article explores whether regulatory initiatives to stringently discipline credit rating agencies’ activities (particularly with a view to issuing sovereign ratings), or other initiatives which reflect an increasing willingness to control speech in financial markets (for instance those targeting activist shareholder strategies), are in line with relevant principles guaranteeing the freedom of expression which have seemingly remained a blind spot of financial regulators