David Clarke
Major breakthroughs on central banks and climate change
18 April, 2019Major breakthroughs on central banks and climate change If we’re going to stop irreversible climate change, we need to decarbonise our financial system, which channels billions of pounds into fossil fuels every year. As institutions at the heart of our financial system, central banks have a crucial role to play. They influence how money flows [...]
Labour commits to keep RBS public after our campaign
3 April, 2019Our campaign to stop the RBS sell-off scored a big victory this week as Labour announced plans to keep the bank in public ownership, with a new focus on productive investment. We are proud to be working alongside We Own It and the New Economics Foundation on this campaign. We’ve warned that the sale of [...]
Access to Cash Review: Positive Money response
6 March, 2019Responding to the independent Access to Cash Review published on Wednesday, which warns that Britain's cash system is "on the verge of collapse", David Clarke, head of policy at Positive Money said: "This review underscores the urgency with which Government and regulators must act to maintain the UK’s cash infrastructure, which is on the brink [...]
Stop the RBS sell-off! Sign our petition to Philip Hammond
14 February, 2019Today we’re releasing poll results which show that only a fraction of people support the Government’s plans to sell off RBS in the near future. (You can read the Guardian’s coverage here.) Selling RBS would represent a huge missed opportunity to help reform Britain’s banking sector. Before RBS releases its annual results tomorrow, we’re launching [...]
Financial regulators finally act on climate change but must go further, faster
6 February, 2019The UK’s financial regulators are finally taking action to address the profound risks that climate change poses to the firms they supervise, and the system they oversee. But in our response to the Financial Conduct Authority’s recent climate change discussion paper, we argue they must rapidly accelerate their efforts before it’s too late. As a [...]
MPs echo Positive Money’s call to give regulator new powers to protect cash
19 December, 2018The pressure is growing on the Government to prevent the rapid pace of cash machine closures, which are continuing at a rate of hundreds every month. Earlier this month, MPs challenged Treasury minister John Glen to do more to stop consumers losing access to their money. A debate organised by Labour's Ged Killen featured MPs [...]
Interim report from the Access to Cash review: Positive Money response
19 December, 2018Responding to an interim report released on Wednesday from the Access to Cash review which warned about the dangers of the UK "sleepwalking" into becoming a cashless society, Positive Money’s Head of Policy David Clarke said, “This report clearly illustrates how the ongoing closure of ATMs and bank branches could leave millions of people without [...]
One step closer to Digital Cash
6 November, 2018We just moved one step closer to seeing Europe’s first general-use central bank digital currency, which could be implemented as soon as 2021. Sweden’s central bank, the Riksbank, has published an action plan for the next stage of the ‘e-Krona’ project. The e-Krona would be an electronic means of payment for use by households and [...]
War on cash: worrying new data
18 October, 2018New data released last week reveals that the disappearance of cash machines is continuing at a rapid pace. A total of 1,400 closed in the six months between January and August 2018, and Positive Money has found that some parts of the country lost over a quarter of their machines in just a few months. [...]