NGO Sets Up Fictitious Regulator to Police ‘Resource Curse’
For years the Berne Declaration, a non-governmental organization, has campaigned for more scrutiny of the Swiss-based traders that pervade global trade in commodities, complaining of the industry’s lack of transparency leaves “a black hole” in the transparency of the global resources market.
This week, frustrated with what it considers is a lack of progress, it created what looked like its own regulator. Or at least that’s what it appeared at first glance.
A swish new website, with a striking resemblance to the one run by Switzerland’s financial market regulator, FINMA, claimed to represent the Swiss Commodity Market Supervisory Authority, or ROHMA. Only a short disclaimer accessible through a link in the bottom-left corner indicated that the regulator was fictitious.
“We think that the design of this webpage is very appealing,” a spokesman for FINMA said, adding that the regulator intended to get in touch with the NGO to discuss how the distinction between the hoax website and the real thing could be improved.
ROHMA website lays out a detailed fictitious blueprint for the powers a commodities regulator might have, and how they would be implemented.
According to a series of made-up press releases, the imaginary regulator has busied itself investigating an array of companies with names like “Gargantua” and “Investment International SA”, suspected of such dodgy dealings as price manipulation and links to politically exposed persons.
“This is partly a hoax, but on a very serious background,” said Oliver Classen, spokesman for Berne Declaration. “It’s about the resource curse and what Switzerland is able and not yet willing to do about it.”
Not everyone appreciated the joke, though.
“Glencore rejects the ROHMA approach,” the company said bluntly in a statement, complaining that publishing proposals without a debate that includes all stakeholder groups sidelines the Swiss commodities industry....MORE
