Hunt missed opportunity for windfall tax on bank profits
15 March, 2023London, Wednesday 15th March 2023 Responding to the Chancellor’s Spring Budget, Fran Boait, executive director at Positive Money, commented: “This Budget marks another missed opportunity to redistribute the burden of higher costs onto those with the broadest shoulders. Rather than properly taxing windfall profits, the Chancellor has chosen to continue saddling workers with suppressed wages [...]
Positive Money response to Lloyds Bank profits
22 February, 2023London, Wednesday 22nd February 2023 Lloyds Bank has today announced that its pre-tax profits for 2022 were £6.9 billion, and that it has increased its bonus pool by 12% to £446 million - the largest it has been in four years. The results follow news that NatWest, Barclays and HSBC made a collective £26.6 billion [...]
Positive Money response to HSBC profits
21 February, 2023London, Tuesday 21st February 2023 HSBC has today announced that its profits for 2022 were £14.5 billion. Its profits for the last quarter of 2022 were £4.3 billion, up more than 90% from the same period in 2021. The results follow news last week that NatWest and Barclays made a collective £12.1 billion of profits [...]
NatWest 2022 profits – Positive Money response
17 February, 2023London, Friday 17th February 2023 NatWest has today announced that its profits for 2022 were £5.1 billion. The results are accompanied by news that NatWest has raised its bonus pool for employees to £367 million, following the government’s removal of the cap on bankers’ bonuses late last year. This, coupled with the source of these [...]
Concerns raised over vested interests of Lords pushing for financial deregulation
19 January, 2023London, Thursday 19th January 2023 All Peers voicing support for measures to deregulate the City have ties to financial services Debate over the government’s new financial services legislation in the House of Lords has been dominated by Peers with vested interests in deregulation, according to new analysis from non-profit research and campaign group Positive Money. [...]
Reining in fossil finance is key to fighting inflation, report urges
22 November, 2022London, Tuesday 22nd November 2022 Latest green ranking of G20 central banks argues that support for the green transition is key to securing financial and price stability Researchers have urged central banks across the G20 to ensure that efforts to curb shorter-term inflation do not hinder progress on the net zero transition, which could undermine [...]
From Liverpool to Birmingham: Positive Money questioned the future of finance this conference season
26 October, 2022October 26, 2022 Positive Money has launched a petition to amend the Financial Services and Markets Bill, replacing the harmful ‘competitiveness’ objective for regulators with a new objective to guide banks towards meeting climate goals. You can sign our petition here. This conference season, Positive Money had the privilege of hosting events on the future [...]
Emergency BoE scheme should not give energy firms a ‘free pass’, say think tanks
14 October, 2022LONDON, 14 October 2022 - Think tanks have today urged the Treasury and Bank of England to impose conditions on energy firms benefiting from a new £40 billion scheme which opens next week. The Energy Markets Financing Scheme (EMFS) will open to applications on Monday, offering emergency support to energy firms operating in the UK [...]
Treasury and Bank of England announce the Energy Markets Financing Scheme (EMFS): Positive Money response
8 September, 2022London, 8 September 2022 The Treasury has today announced that it will partner with the Bank of England on a new scheme to offer £40 billion of financial support to energy companies facing “extraordinary liquidity requirements” due to high and volatile energy prices. As well as passing a “rigorous” assessment process, the Treasury has said [...]