May 6th, 2018

There’s a good chance you have never heard of BlackRock. In less than 30 years, this American financial firm has grown from nothing to becoming the world’s largest and most trusted manager of other people’s money.
The assets left in their care are worth a staggering 6.3 trillion US dollars – a figure with 12 zeroes.
How much and where does BlackRock invest in Europe?
How does this enormous financial power exert its influence and to what consequences for European companies and their employees?
And will BlackRock’s recently-announced social expectations – from companies it invests in – help make the business world a better place?
Together with the Dutch research platform “Follow the money“, Investigate Europe´s team has researched these questions.
BlackRock declined our requests for interviews. It also refused to answer IE’s questions submitted in writing.
However, economists, politicians, bankers, investors, researchers, managers and former BlackRock employees have contributed to describing a company like no other.
Their knowledge shows a global money giant with customers in 100 countries that:
– undermines competition through owning shares in competing companies;
– blurs boundaries between private capital and government affairs by working closely with regulators;
– advocates for privatisation of pensions schemes in order to channel savings capital into its funds;
Take a closer look with us.

BlackRock: The financial leviathan that bears down on Europe’s decisions

We have recently published an English translation of a report written by our colleague, Jordan Pouille, for Mediapart. We hope this will make our research on BlackRock – and with it our main findings – accessible to all our readers. The report looks at the financial and political influence of one of the most powerful investment companies in the world.