5.3 Financial sector The financial sector can be defined as the ‘set of institutions, instruments, and the regulatory framework that permit transactions to be made by incurring and settling debts; that is, by extending credit’.323 Financial intermediaries (banks and other financial institutions) provide a link between households, firms and governments by transferring funds from savers to borrowers for consumption and investment purposes. Among their main functions, they mobilise savings, provide expert advice, ensure risk management, monitor borrowers and facilitate the exchange of goods and services. Financial institutions therefore play a key role not only in resource mobilisation, but also in defining how and if businesses choose to address human rights. This is particularly the case for financial institutions whose business relationships with clients require them to provide financial and investment advice, including opinions and assessments of financial risks and opportunities, or to handle transactions on their behalf.324 While not as frequent as one might hope, increasingly, special procedures and treaty bodies are addressing financial institutions in their work. For example, the Working Group on business and human rights has lent some attention to the issue by acknowledging initiatives that could improve the links between international financial regulation, sustainable development and human rights, and, in particular, the capacity to mobilise resources.325 Soon after the financial crisis, certain special procedures exposed problems in the architecture of the global financial and monetary systems, and noted that the human rights framework obliges states to take immediate steps to regulate the actions of banking and financial sector entities under their control, in order to prevent them from violating or infringing upon human rights and ensure that they serve the interests of society (eg, ensuring access to credit without discrimination). To this end, it was noted that states should discourage harmful practices by establishing accountability mechanisms that penalise risky behaviours and prosecute perpetrators.326 It has also been noted that insufficiently regulated international financial institutions have played a role in enabling aggressive tax avoidance or evasion on the part of transnational corporations and the super-rich.327 323 Patricia Alexander and Sally Baden, ‘Glossary on macroeconomics from a gender perspective’ (February 2000) Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex and investopedia.com; OECD Glossary of Statistical Terms, available at https://stats.oecd.org/glossary accessed 20 October 2017. 324 ‘Report of the Working Group on business and human rights’ (Visit to the United States of America) (2014) UN Doc A/ HRC/26/25/Add.4. 325 ‘Report of the Working Group on business and human rights’ (Improving policy coherence for inclusive and sustainable development) (2015) UN Doc A/HRC/29/28. 326 ‘Report of the Independent Expert on poverty, Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona’ (2011) UN Doc A/HRC/17/34, paras 82–85. See also, ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on housing, Raquel Rolnik’ (2009) UN Doc A/HRC/10/7. 327 See, eg, ‘Report of the Independent Expert on foreign debt, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky’, (2015) A/HRC/28/60, para 56; ‘Report of the Independent Expert on international order, Alfred de Zayas’ (2016) A/71/286; ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on poverty, Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona’ (2014) UN Doc A/HRC/26/28. December 2017   The Obligation to Mobilise Resources: Bridging Human Rights, Sustainable Development Goals, and Economic and Fiscal Policies 81