Paul Jay speaks to Sony Kapoor at the Tides Foundation’s Momentum conference in San Francisco. Kapoor, a former investment banker, explains that the financial system over complicates its own products in order to prevent easy copying, to extract maximum profits, and to confuse its customers, to further extract profits. He also speaks about how much of the global economy is based on the financial sector evading taxes, and says how that must be changed. “We need more compartmentalization in finance, be it the Glass-Steagall Act, separating commercial banking from investment banking… risk should be borne by people who are best qualified to bare it, and they should be regulated differently, and everything should be watched by the regulator.”

Sony Kapoor

Sony Kapoor is the Managing Director of Re-Define (Rethinking Development, Finance & Environment), an international Think Tank promoting financial system reform. A prominent expert on international finance and development, he started his career in investment banking and derivative trading. In 2003 he quit to work on reforming the financial system and promoting international development. Kapoor has been a leading advocate for debt cancellation, action against tax havens, and promoting innovative sources of financing. He is a key advisor to several governments, international agencies, political parties, unions, and NGOs on helping shape a more progressive society. Kapoor has worked in a policy advisory and strategy consulting capacity for international organizations such as the World Bank, UN, and UNDP, international NGOs such as Oxfam, and Christian Aid, financial institutions such as the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India, and Lehman Brothers, and governments including that of Norway. He has studied at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, University of Delhi and the London School of Economics.