Chancellor Philip Hammond is listening to us

Exciting news – Philip Hammond has committed to tackle the lack of diversity in the most powerful positions at the Bank of England. This is good news: a more diverse range of people in charge should lead to better and fairer decisions for our economy, and this happened after Positive Money called for it.

Read on to find out more, for a Christmas freebie, and for lots more exciting news from the Positive Money campaign.

An improvement in diversity at the Bank of England – yey!

Right now there’s only one woman on the Bank of England’s most powerful committee. But Positive Money has always believed that in order for the Bank of England to make fairer decisions for our economy, we need people who truly represent society sitting at the top table.

So in September we wrote to the influential group of MPs, the Treasury Select committee, arguing that more women and people of colour should be appointed. And they listened. [1] In October Nicky Morgan MP, the chair of this committee, officially asked Chancellor Philip Hammond to ensure “more gender and ethnic diversity of representation”.

And now, Hammond has said they’re committed to releasing more information about applicants, so we can make sure they are trying their best to encourage people from wider backgrounds to apply. [2] It’s a typically-slow government chain of letters, but it is a step in the right direction!

Now we’re calling for more occupational diversity too, so that people with experience in the real economy are in charge too (currently, the majority were working in the City or for large companies before). Watch this space for their response!

Free Christmas presents!

Looking for ethical present ideas or stocking fillers? This weekend you can get your hands on some lovely free bamboo socks through our handy online shop! [LINK] Add the coupon code SOCKY in your basket and you’ll get some free socks in time for Christmas. You can also buy “change money change the world” tea towels, tote bags, T-shirts and jumpers!

Positive Money in the Daily Mail, Guardian and CityAM

A friendly journalist from the Daily Mail’s “This is Money” website has written a very positive article about Positive Money. After joining 35 Positive Money supporters and staff to our annual retreat to the lake District in September, she was fascinated by our supporters’ energy and determination to reform our money and banking system. You can read the article here!

Our professional poll of MPs – showing the “shocking ignorance” of MPs about where money comes from – made the front page of City AM!

One of the UK’s leading columnists, Zoe Williams, also wrote an article in the Guardian, inspired by Positive Money. She explained to thousands of readers how the actual magic money tree works.

Positive Money Europe gets off the ground

Thanks to the generous support of hundreds of Positive Money supporters, together we’ve been able to get Positive Money Europe off the ground as an official organisation! Over 300 people chipped in to (just!) raise the £5500 we needed for the legal and admin costs. Positive Money Europe will now be able to run targeted campaigns to MEPs and the European Central Bank.

We want to say a heartfelt thank you to all the people who have dug into their pockets to help Positive Money over the last six months. Together we’ve managed to hold events at the main political party conferences, hire an intern (Noni!) to get our youth network off the ground, run a professional poll of MPs, and now set up a whole new organisation.

It’s amazing what people power can do!

“No rate rise without a pay rise” – outside the Bank of England

In November, the Bank of England decided, for the first time for over a decade, to raise interest rates. 30 Positive Money supporters gathered outside to call on the government to accompany any rate rise with an effort to boost wages too. Our campaign was covered in the Guardian and we were interviewed by news crews from around the world! [3]

Kicking off the Change Finance campaign, an inspiring conference in Brussels

On Monday and Tuesday this week, an exciting conference happened in Brussels. Positive Money supported Finance Watch (the european civil society organisation charged with counterweighting financial lobbyists), to organise the first Change Finance conference. [4]

Over 200 people – including campaigners from Oxfam, Greenpeace and the Tax Justice Campaign; academics, economists and expert advisers; along with social activists, students and interested individuals – came together for workshops, panel debates and networking.

Together we tackled a big question: 10 years on since the start of the financial crisis, how can we work together to make finance serve society again? The energy, contacts and knowledge shared sent us away more confident than ever that together we can take on big finance.

The start of the Positive Money Youth Network

10th November was the first Positive Money youth training day! 15 young people from across the country came together at the University of York for a joyous day of skills and ideas sharing. [5] Noni and I were inspired by the energy and range of experience in the room.

Together we vented our frustrations for how the economy doesn’t serve young people, and brainstormed how we can work together to build more young people’s capacities to speak out on it! The young people involved are now connected to each other and Positive Money local group leaders around the UK, with plans to take more action in 2018.

Green finance conference at the Dutch central bank

Last week our economist Rob Macquarie went to the Dutch central bank in Amsterdam, for a conference on central banking and green finance. [6]

Policymakers, academics, and campaigners from the UK and Europe, came together to discuss how together we can make sure our central banks redesign their operations to recognise, respond to, and ultimately slowdown, dangerous climate change.

The fact Positive Money was invited to this conference, and that the Dutch central bank have hosted it is very exciting progress for our campaign. The Dutch central bank is one of the few engaging on this topic, and our presence there means we’re being listened to and building bridges with influential people.

As you can see, there’s so much exciting stuff going on – thanks to growing support from people like you, and more funders recognising the benefit of our work. We’ve now got 10 members of staff, and it means together we can have more and more impact in our fight to build a money and banking system that works for people.

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Notes:

[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41677681

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/economy/2017/11/8700-reason-treasury-won-t-come-clean-about-budget-s-gender-inequality

[2] Philip Hammond’s letter to Nicky Morgan: http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-committees/treasury/Correspondence/2017-19/Chancellor-Chair-diversity-senior-appointments-271117.pdf

[3] https://www.marketwatch.com/story/protesters-gather-outside-bank-of-england-with-rates-set-to-rise-for-first-time-in-a-decade-2017-11-02

http://positivemoney.org/2017/11/no-rate-rise-protest/

[4] http://mailchi.mp/finance-watch/members-update-2069597?e=58c477e5a1

[5] http://positivemoney.org/2017/11/youth-network/

[6] https://www.cepweb.org/central-banking-and-green-finance/