Positive Money UK is a

not-for-profit A not-for-profit or non-for-profit organization (NFPO) is a Legal Entity, legal entity that does not distribute surplus funds to its members and is formed to fulfill specific objectives. While not-for-profit organizations and Nonprofit organ ...

advocacy group Advocacy groups, also known as lobby groups, interest groups, special interest groups, pressure groups, or public associations, use various forms of advocacy or lobbying to influence public opinion and ultimately public policy. They play an impor ...

based in London and Brussels. Positive Money's mission is to promote various reforms of central banks and alternative monetary policy. Its current executive director is geophysicist Fran Boait.

History

Positive Money was founded in London by Ben Dyson in 2010 "Monnaie pleine : une opportunité en Suisse pour changer la monnaie" he "Full money" federal popular initiative: an opportunity to change currency in Switzerland ''La revue durable'', number 60, winter-spring 2017-2018, pages 26-29. as a response to the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

. In its early years, Positive Money focused its efforts in advocating for a fundamental reform of the United Kingdom's monetary system. In 2013, Fran Boait became executive director of Positive money. Under Boait's leadership, the organisation somehow broadened its scope and diversified its range of proposals, by including more pragmatic steps such as digital currency, and various forms of monetary financing proposals such as "

People's QE People's Quantitative Easing (PQE) is a policy proposed by Jeremy Corbyn during the 2015 Labour Party leadership election (UK), 2015 Labour leadership election in August. It would require the Bank of England to create money to finance governmen ...

" or "

helicopter money Helicopter money is a proposed monetary policy for inflation targeting, sometimes suggested as an alternative to quantitative easing (QE) when the economy is in a liquidity trap (when interest rates near zero and the economy remains in recession) ...

", and " green quantitative easing". Positive Money also adopted new tactics such as rallies in front of the Bank of England and petitioning. In 2013, Positive Money initiated the International Movement for Monetary Reform, a worldwide network of likeminded organisations. In 2015, Positive money started its international expansion by launching a Eurozone-wide campaign on "Quantitative Easing for the People". Positive money registered as a lobby group in the EU institutions in Brussels and in 2018 it formally created Positive Money Europe to operate the group's campaigns towards the

European Central Bank The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central component of the Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's Big Four (banking)#International ...

and the European Parliament. In December 2019, Positive Money Europe was able to meet with the ECB President

Christine Lagarde Christine Madeleine Odette Lagarde (; , ; born 1 January 1956) is a French politician and lawyer who has been the President of the European Central Bank since 2019. She previously served as the 11th Managing Director of the International Monetar ...

and its work has been praised by former ECB's chief economist

Peter Praet Peter Praet (born 20 January 1949 in Herchen near Eitorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Allied-occupied Germany) is a Belgian economist who served as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank from 2011 to 2019 and concurrently as E ...

. In 2016 Positive money founder Ben Dyson joined the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the Kingdom of England, English Government's banker and debt manager, and still one ...

as a researcher, and he continued to work on

Central Bank Digital Currency A central bank digital currency (CBDC; also called digital fiat currency or digital base money) is a digital currency issued by a central bank, rather than by a commercial bank. It is also a liability of the central bank, unless it is dividend-y ...

. Early 2021, Positive money won a major victory with the announcement that the Bank of England would be given the remit to green its corporate quantitative easing programme.

Proposals

Sovereign money

Positive Money's historical backbone proposal is to introduce a "sovereign money system". Daniel Eckert
"Der Krieg um das sichere Geld der Zukunft"
''

Die Welt (, ) is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group and it is considered a newspaper of record in Germany. Its leading competitors are the ...

'', 12 January 2014 (page visited on 23 February 2018). Under such a reform, private banks would be deprived from their ability to create money by extending credit into the economy. In turn, the

would regain the monopoly over

money creation Money creation, or money issuance, is the process by which the money supply of a country, or an economic or monetary region,Such as the Eurozone or ECCAS is increased. In most modern economies, money is created by both central banks and comm ...

, by financing the government's budget (

monetary financing Debt monetization or monetary financing is the practice of a government borrowing money from the central bank to finance public spending instead of selling bonds to private investors or raising taxes. The central banks who buy government debt, are ...

) or distributing a citizens' dividend ("

"). The group however refutes any affiliation with

Modern Monetary Theory Modern monetary theory or modern money theory (MMT) is a heterodox macroeconomic theory that describes currency as a public monopoly and unemployment as evidence that a currency monopolist is overly restricting the supply of the financial ass ...

. Although Positive Money's proposal is similar to

full-reserve banking Full-reserve banking (also known as 100% reserve banking, or sovereign money system) is a system of banking where banks do not lend Demand deposit, demand deposits and instead only lend from time deposits. It differs from fractional-reserve bankin ...

narrow banking Narrow banking is a proposed type of bank called a narrow bank also called a safe bank. Narrow banking would restrict banks to holding liquid and safe government bonds as opposed to other equities (like loans) against depositor's money as opposed ...

, it differs in the sense that it would merge bank deposits and central bank money. As explained by former Positive Money researcher Frank van Lerven, "Under a Sovereign Money system, there is no longer a split circulation of money, just one integrated quantity of money circulating among banks and non-banks alike." According to former ECB Vice-president Vitor Constancio, Positive Money's proposal "would not create enough funding for investment and growth."

Other proposals

Over the years, Positive Money has broadened its agenda towards somewhat more short-term proposals such as: * Fiscal-monetary cooperation: the organisation proposes various ways to channel money created by central banks towards public spending and investment. * Reforming the governance and accountability frameworks of the Bank of England and of the European Central Bank. * Greening monetary policy: Aligning monetary policy with climate change objectives

Jason Hickel Jason Edward Hickel (born 1982) is an anthropologist and professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Hickel's research and writing focuses on economic anthropology and development, and is particularly opposed to capitalism, neocolonial ...

"To deal with climate change we need a new financial system"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 5 November 2016 (page visited on 23 February 2018). though reforms of central bank's

collateral framework Collateral may refer to: Business and finance * Collateral (finance), a borrower's pledge of specific property to a lender, to secure repayment of a loan * Marketing collateral, in marketing and sales Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Collater ...

or forms of

credit guidance Credit (from Latin verb ''credit'', meaning "one believes") is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt), ...

such as green TLTROs. * Digital currency: the organisation propose implementing a

central bank digital currency A central bank digital currency (CBDC; also called digital fiat currency or digital base money) is a digital currency issued by a central bank, rather than by a commercial bank. It is also a liability of the central bank, unless it is dividend-y ...

in the UK and supports the introduction of a

digital euro The digital euro is the project of the European Central Bank (ECB), decided in July 2021, for the possible introduction of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The aim is to develop a fast and secure electronic payment instrument that would ...

by the ECB.

References

External links