"This memo offers a snapshot of how TiSA, if concluded with this text included, would heighten risks of financial instability and handcuff governments’ ability to respond to a domestic or global financial crisis at a time when everyone (except the finance industry and its political allies) agree that we need more financial regulation, not less," WikiLeaks said in its analysis of the financial services annex leak.
Among the ways in which TiSA would reinforce financial risks that have become apparent since the 2008 crisis, the whistleblowing website listed the all-encompassing nature of the deal, the blocking of national regulators from changing rules on the treatment of foreign firms, the limited ability of governments to restrict the size of financial institutions, the absence of barriers between consumer and investment banking, risky new financial products, capital control restrictions and barriers to consumer protection.
The leak also reveals that TiSA documents fail to provide for data privacy protection and propose to reduce foreign directors' and managers' accountability, while some participants of the talks want the financial services industry to have more input into the deal.
In May, WikiLeaks published the first batch of documents related to confidential 23-way talks on TiSA. The TiSA treaty is aimed at liberalizing the trade in services among the United States, the European Union and other countries accounting for nearly three-quarters of global services.
The trade in services pact has been under discussion since 2013. Over a dozen of rounds of talks have since been concluded, with no deadline for ending the negotiations in sight, according to the European Commission.
