Simon Youel
RBS 2018 results: Positive Money comment
15 February, 2019Responding to RBS' 2018 results, which show profits doubling to £1.62bn, and a £977 dividend payment to the government, Fran Boait executive director of Positive Money said: "Another dividend payout should cast even further doubt on the government’s plans to sell the public’s majority stake in RBS at a loss. "It’s beyond clear that an [...]
Only one in ten Britons support government’s RBS strategy
14 February, 2019Fewer than one in 10 believe that the Government should sell its stake in RBS in the near future Most Britons don’t believe a privatised RBS would work in the public interest London, UK, 14 February 2019 - Fewer than one in 10 Britons believe that the UK Government should sell its stake in RBS [...]
Making RBS work in the public interest
8 February, 2019This blog originally appeared on Left Foot Forward. As RBS bosses yesterday sat down to their AGM with a plan to speed up the bank’s privatisation, the Labour Party repeated their intentions to halt the government’s botched sell-off. Yesterday, Reuters reported that Labour’s shadow banking minister Jonathan Reynolds said that the party “cannot see the rationale for [...]
Bank of England ‘Super Thursday’: Positive Money comment
7 February, 2019Commenting on the Bank of England's unanimous decision to keep interest rates at 0.75%, Positive Money executive director Fran Boait said: “The Bank of England bind continues into 2019, as the central bank wants to raise rates to build up ammunition for future downturns, but is constrained by uncertainty around Brexit and the resilience of [...]
My experience meeting the Governor of the Bank of England
31 January, 20192019 got off to an exciting start at Positive Money, with our first ever meeting with Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England - one of the most powerful figures not only in Britain, but also in the world’s money and banking system. You can watch part of our exchange here. Having been [...]
Bank of Canada research finds Digital Cash could ‘improve social welfare’
22 January, 2019A Staff Working Paper published by Canada's central bank last week concluded that a central bank digital currency (CBDC) could address the issues arising from the digitisation of our money and banking system, as argued in Positive Money's Digital Cash proposal. The paper explores scenarios in which central bank-issued fiat money is eclipsed by privately [...]
What we learned from Mark Carney’s Future Forum Q&A
9 January, 2019In a welcome bid to increase its transparency, the Bank of England has been hosting online Q&As with some of its most senior staff over the past 10 weeks on its Future Forum. As noted in previous blogs, Positive Money has been contributing lots of questions ourselves and following the forum closely. On Wednesday the [...]
Bank of England Financial Stability Report: Positive Money response
28 November, 2018Commenting on expectations of lower capital requirements as a result of the Bank of England's stress testing, Fran Boait, executive director of Positive Money said: “Ten years on from the global financial crisis we risk mistakes being repeated, as the Bank of England faces pressure to roll back capital requirements so that banks can pay [...]
Another top economist supports our Digital Cash proposal
23 November, 2018As we explored last week, our proposal for Digital Cash in the form of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) is rapidly gaining the attention of some of the world's most influential policymakers. Now this week one of the biggest names in contemporary economics, Nouriel Roubini, has written an article in which he expresses support for [...]