Forging Legitimizing Coalitions: Comparing EU/U.S. Financial Consumer Protection Reforms

What is the role of non-state actors—corporate and civic—in influencing and redirecting regulatory reforms? How do critical junctures like financial crises change interest group dynamics? Focusing on financial consumer protection reforms across the Atlantic, this essay discusses the role of civil society actors in bringing about policy change that runs counter the traditional capture narrative in the literature on financial regulatory reform. In light of the 2008 financial crisis, policymakers in the European Union (EU) and the United States turned their attention to financial consumer protection (FCP) and adopted a range of policy measures in response to crisis-related failures. [First lines