Anna Pick
Climate Change Committee confirms voluntary pledges no substitute for financial regulation
29 June, 2022London, 28 June 2022 Responding to the Climate Change Committee’s 2022 Progress Report, Fran Boait, executive director of research and campaign group Positive Money, commented: “Today’s report confirms that near-term ambition on aligning financial flows with the Paris Agreement is too weak, and it’s very concerning that private sector commitments are waning so soon after [...]
Stress tests show climate delay could cost banks an extra £110bn
24 May, 2022London, 23rd May 2022 The Bank of England has published the results of its climate ‘stress tests’, which assess the resilience of UK banks to different climate scenarios. The Bank of England’s stress tests assess how banks and insurers can cope with severe economic scenarios. The 2021 Climate Biennial Exploratory Scenario (CBES) explores the resilience [...]
Economists warn Sunak against financial deregulation
16 May, 2022London, 16th May 2022 58 leading economists have written an open letter to the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak MP, and the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, John Glen MP, outlining their concerns regarding proposals to make ‘competitiveness’ a greater focus in financial regulation. A landmark post-Brexit Financial Services and Markets Bill was announced at the Queen’s Speech last [...]
Financial Services and Markets Bill threatens levelling up: Positive Money response to Queen’s speech
10 May, 202210th May 2022 The Financial Services and Markets Bill, announced in the Queen’s Speech this morning, is expected to deliver the government’s ‘Future Regulatory Framework, which proposes fundamental changes to the purpose of the rules that shape the critical financial services sector, and who holds power over them. The Treasury has announced that the Bill [...]
Government should take the lead in tackling cost of living
5 May, 2022London, 5 May 2022 Responding to the Bank of England’s decision to increase the Bank Rate by 0.25 percentage points, to 1%, research and campaign group Positive Money has called for the government to take the lead in tackling the cost of living crisis. Fran Boait, executive director of Positive Money, said: “The Bank of [...]
Finance and energy security: what happened last week?
14 April, 2022April 14, 2022 There’s a lot of news unfolding fast at the moment, and last week was no exception. So here we’ve condensed the key climate developments from the last week - from big announcements by the UN and UK government - and what they mean for the movement to end finance for fossil fuels [...]
Sunak updates BoE remit: Positive Money response
7 April, 2022Responding to the news that Rishi Sunak has today updated the remit of the Bank of England to support the government’s energy strategy, research and campaign group Positive Money have called for the central bank to urgently restrict UK banks’ investment in fossil fuels and redirect finance towards renewables. In separate letters to the Bank’s [...]
Public says no to financial deregulation
4 February, 202237 civil society groups have come together to oppose plans for financial regulators to prioritise 'international competitiveness' - a Trojan horse for sweeping deregulation that could cause financial instability as well as threatening the government's net zero target & levelling up goals. 9 in 10 Brits oppose the move, according to new research by the [...]
Rate rise a blunt tool to manage cost of living crisis
3 February, 2022London, 3 Feb 2022 Today, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee voted to impose the second back-to-back rate rise since 2004, raising interest rates to 0.5%. The Committee also voted unanimously to fully unwind the Bank’s stock of corporate bond purchases by 2023, a £20 billion portfolio that has drawn criticism from campaigners for [...]