Politicians Dominate Bloomberg's Who's Who of Finance, With Blythe Masters #46

Blythe Masters has been ranked #46 in Bloomberg's List of Most Influential People in Finance. She is the only representative of the FinTech industry in this list.

List dominated by politicians

The list of 50 most influential people in the world of finance is dominated by politicians. 5 out of the top 6 spots are occupied by politicians of major nations – Theresa May (#1, PM of UK), Donald Trump (#2, US Presidential candidate), Hillary Clinton (#2, US Presidential Candidate), Xi Jinping (#4, Chinese President) and Angela Merkel (#6, Chancellor of Germany)

Apart from politicians, central bank governors figure prominently in Bloomberg's list. These include Mario Draghi (#7, President – European Central Bank), Janet Yellen (#8, Chair – US Federal Reserve) and Zhou Xiaochuan (#14, Governor – People's Bank of China).

The dominance of politicians and central bank officials in the list is natural, since they together control the fiscal and monetary policies of the world's largest economies.

Blythe Masters at #46

Blythe Masters, who is the CEO of Digital Asset Holdings Inc, is ranked #46 in the list. Blythe Masters is a finance rock star in her own right, who is best known for helping create the credit derivatives market during her career at J.P. Morgan. Digital Asset Holdings has developed a digital asset platform using the Hyperledger project. The Australian Securities Exchange has signed an agreement, appointing Digital Asset as its preferred partner to develop a Blockchain-based solution to address settlement in the Australian cash equities market.

Bloomberg's Methodology

The starting point of compiling the list of most influential people in the world of finance is; the nomination of candidates by reporters and editors in Bloomberg bureaus. This is then vetted and voted by a panel of senior editors, to arrive at the final list along with the rankings. The selection process seems to be weighted towards traditional finance and people from the Fintech sector, apart from Blythe Masters, have not made it to the final list of 50.