Trust, Power and Public Relations in Financial Markets

The public relations profession positions itself as expert in building trust throughout global markets, particularly after crisis strikes. Successive crises have tainted financial markets in recent years. Calls to restore trust in finance have been particularly pressing, given trust’s crucial role as lubricant in global financial engines. Nonetheless, years after the global financial crisis, trust in financial markets remains both tenuous and controversial. This book explores PR in financial markets, posing a fundamental question about PR professionals as would-be ‘trust strategists’. If PR promotes its expertise in building and restoring trust, how can it ignore its potential role in losing trust in the first place? Drawing on examples from state finance, international lending agencies, trade bodies, financial institutions and consumer groups in mature and emerging financial centres, this book explores the wide-ranging role of PR in financial markets, including: State finance and debt capital markets Investor relations, M&A and IPOs Corporate communications for financial institutions Product promotion and consumer finance Financial trade associations and lobbying Consumerism and financial activism. Far reaching and challenging, this innovative book will be essential reading for researchers, advanced students and professionals in PR, communication and finance.

1. PR in Financial Markets: ‘Booms and Busts’ in Trust 2. Reframing Trust, Power & Public Relations 3. Promoting State Financial Power: Creditworthiness as Trustworthiness 4. Financial Trade Associations: Territorial Battles for Trust 5. Stock Market Storytelling and Dalliances with Trust 6. Changing Banking Models, Shifting Trust Relations 7. Insurance, Investment, Pensions: Rise of the Robo-Expert 8. Financial Exclusion: PR as Activism and Resistance 9. Organising Silence: Public Relations in Financial Silos 10. Conclusion: Revisiting the Trust Strategist’s Role

Clea Bourne is a Lecturer in Public Relations, Advertising & Marketing, at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. Her research on communication in financial markets has appeared in Culture and Organisation, Public Relations Inquiry, Journal of Public Relations Research and New Media and Society, and in edited collections.