When financial institutions are no longer built to serve

SINGAPORE (Oct 5): A gaping rift between Wall Street and Main Street remains even a decade on from the global financial crisis (GFC) as financial systems around the world continue to function without a core purpose, according to an associate editor and global business columnist at The Financial Times.

In an op-ed essay published in The New York Times’ Opinion section last Friday, Rana Foroohar, who is also a columnist at The Financial Times, states that big banks now rule over our economies instead of serving us – by using a “closed loop of trading” between the buying of stocks, bonds, real estate and other asset to further enrich the world’s wealthiest, and in the process, fuel the wealth gap.

The problem, argues Foroohar, is a fundamental shift in the business model of finance given its lack of equality, transparency and a shared moral framework. Instead, it has become disconnected from the very people and entities it was designed to serve:  

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