ABSTRACT
Financial institutions and auditors, offering specific technical services, constitute a significant, though relatively less studied element in a corporation’s network of relations with the economic and political world around it. Closely involved with company activity, these institutions can be a subtle, often nearly invisible resource in a company’s definition of its corporate future and its relationship with the Federal Government. Financial institutions—commercial, investment and savings banks, as well as insurance and finance companies—are tied into a corporation’s operations in a wide variety of ways. Data disclosed by the companies on long- and short-term debt shows a wide variation in the extent to which a company is drawing on its banking network. Data on the direct involvement of financial institutions in a company’s Government relations activities are extremely scarce. Because these companies depend, in varying degrees, on defense contracting, however, it is fair to assume that the lenders have an interest in and discuss company defense business.
