Countering financial interests for social purposes: what drives state intervention in pension markets in the context of financialisation?

Welfare financialisation creates conflicts between the social objectives of households and the commercial interests of financial welfare providers. This paper investigates under what conditions regulations’ that counter financial interests are more or less likely. It argues that our analytical focus should shift away from gauging the relative strength of organised interests or voter mobilisation, towards a better understanding of how policymakers play an independent role in shaping regulatory decisions in line with their own long-term objective: promoting private pension provision as an alternative to more extensive public provision. To support this argument, this paper examines a least-likely case study–namely the puzzling shift in the UK over the past two decades towards stricter regulation of the pension industry. Overall, the paper suggests that variation in regulatory decisions reflects the efforts by policymakers to balance the commercial viability and social-political stability of private pension provision.