“Ethical Markets highly recommends all the research and advocacy of Positive Money, based in London and Brussels, as the most innovative and trusted NGO promoting reform of central banks and the processes of money-creation and credit allocation. This guide to the new initiative by Andrew Bailey, new head of the Bank of England, explains their explorations of creating a bank -issued digital currency CBDC, and how they intend to regulate private digital currencies like stable coins in must reading! Positive Money also offers a guide to how to respond by Sept 7th to the BoE’s survey! Ethical Markets TV Special “THE MONEY FIX”, aired over the past decade on many PBS stations in the USA, distributed globally to colleges by www.films.com and free on demand for our registered professional users at www.ethicalmarkets.tv)
We hope all our colleagues involved in reforming money-creation and credit allocation will read the Positive Money guide below, essential to understand how to democratize our financial systems to serve the real productive economies on the ground!
~Hazel Henderson, Editor“
This is a potential gamechanger. The Bank of England has released a paper looking into new forms of digital money – and is considering creating a new form of public digital money, also known as Central Bank Digital Currency. [1] Done right, this could mean we’d no longer have to rely on big private banks or be forced to bail them out. [2]
But designed wrong, this could hand more power to private banks and card companies, who already control most of our money and payment system – and who are fighting to keep it that way. Together, we need to make sure that doesn’t happen.
The Bank of England’s opened a public survey that’s running until Tuesday. It’s asking if this new money should be accessible to the public or just private companies. If thousands of us respond, together we can send a clear message that the public want any new central bank digital money to be truly public – and drown out the private companies.
Hazel, this is a huge opportunity for us to show that the public doesn’t want to rely on private interests controlling our money system anymore. You only have to answer one question with a tick box, so it will only take you 1 minute to have your say. Hazel, please will you answer the Bank’s survey now?
Big banks and tech firms like Facebook are vying for control of our digital money and payment system. And with the use of cash declining (the only truly public currency available to us), in the last few decades our money system has become more and more privatised.
But a Central Bank Digital Currency would be a form of public digital money. And if they make it available to everyone, it could bring lots of benefits, such as:
- We could all hold bank accounts directly at the Bank of England (perhaps with access via the public Post Office), instead of relying on private banks
- It would ‘end ‘too big to fail’ banking’. The public would no longer be forced to bail out banks to save the payments system, because we’ll have a secure public one instead
- It would make sure the unbanked or underbanked are no longer financially excluded and cut out extortionate banking fees
- It would allow the government to send money directly to households, so it could pave the way for policies like universal basic income
Democratising money has been at the heart of Positive Money’s work since we started as a movement in 2010. [3] Money should be a tool that’s issued by a public body and available to everyone. Having a money system we can trust is the foundation of a fair democracy.
Positive Money’s power comes from the people who read these emails and take action together. This email’s going to nearly 30,000 people. Earlier this year we won a new mandate for the Bank of England together with partners. [4] Together, we can challenge the dominance of private banks by responding to this survey in our thousands.
It’s a rare opportunity for us to demand a truly public payments system – one that prioritises people’s needs over the profits of a few greedy companies.
Are you ready to help revolutionise the banking system, Hazel? Please will you answer the Bank of England’s survey in one minute now? It’s important that thousands of us make our voices heard before Tuesday’s deadline.