The Future of Money Global

The problem

No matter who we are or where we are from we all need to access money to buy food, pay our rent or mortgage, and make payments. Money, and the ability to access it and make payments, is a fundamental public good that we all rely on, similar to water and electricity.

But with access to physical cash under threat across the globe, we are increasingly relying on private banks to run our payments system. And this is a problem, because if one of the big banks fail they can pull whole national payment systems down with them, causing the economy to grind to a halt.

In the modern economy, the vast majority of money we use takes the form of privately-issued bank deposits. This makes banks ‘too big to fail’ and gives them enormous economic power.

Physical cash, as a public form of money, offers an inclusive way for anyone, no matter who they are, to make payments freely. The decline of cash risks huge numbers of people across the world being excluded from being able to make payments and therefore participate in the economy. It also gives banks more power and money, because we’ll increasingly rely on them to make payments, without a public alternative in the form of cash. This will ensure they remain ‘too big to fail’ and strengthen their power to shape our economy.

What we need now

Rather than leaving private banks to decide the future of money, Positive Money believes we should build a strong public money system, in which the future of cash is protected, alongside a new publicly-issued form of digital money, with the same privacy, independence and benefits of cash. This would allow us to separate the public good of money and the payments system from private banks’ reckless risk-taking, and providing the building blocks for more inclusive, equitable, stable, democratic and prosperous economies.

We may be on the brink of further transformations in money, with the emergence of new forms of digital money, which could outcompete bank deposits as a means of payment. On the one hand, multinational corporations are seeking to issue new forms of money in the form of so-called ‘stablecoins’, such as Facebook’s Libra project. And on the other hand, central banks across the world are developing new central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), which would offer a publicly-issued alternative to privately-issued digital money.

We believe the development of such CBDCs could be a crucial opportunity to build a fairer and more stable money and payments system. We need to come together to stop the future of money being decided by unaccountable private interests, and seize the opportunity to take back control of our financial system with publicly-issued digital money.

Milestones so far

• Positive Money has worked closely with governments and central banks in the UK and Eurozone to inform the design of CBDCs for public benefit

• We have widened the public conversation over CBDCs, raising awareness and encouraging thousands of citizens to engage with consultations on the topic

• We have shaped the development of CBDCs with our thought leadership, such as our original ‘Digital Cash’ report in 2016.

• We are researching the role of CBDCs and new payment systems in re-shaping the international monetary and financial system (IMFS).This looks at how Global North currencies and Central Bank policies are fuelling an unjust IMFS by creating high barriers to accessing critical finance for many countries in the Global South. And the role of new payment systems in promoting Global South-South cooperation to reshape global power dynamics.

Support the campaign

If you support Positive Money’s work for a public money and payment system, please watch and share this video to spread the word and consider making a donation to our campaign