YouGov surveys commissioned for ‘Britcoin’ Digital Pound project

Published on 9th March 2023

We have analysed the two YouGov surveys issued by the Bank of England and HM Treasury in connection with the public consultation on ‘Britcoin’: the plans for a UK Central Bank Digital Currency.

There is one survey for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, and one for Consumers.

They both consistently over-egg the current take-up […]

The Bank of England – off-the-leash and now off-the-wall as well

From Global Britain website

Published on 31st January 2023

Global Britain has published a pamphlet written by Lyddon Consulting on how recent events have moved the Bank of England beyond any democratic control. The Bank’s ‘Britcoin’ project – for the introduction of a UK Central Bank Digital Currency – demonstrates the Bank of England independence – from […]

Liability-Driven Investments crisis shows derivatives remain a systemic risk

Published on 17 December 2022

Introduction

At the end of September 2022 a number of UK companies’ pension plans reportedly came close to collapse. This was to do with a financial instrument called a Liability-Driven Investment or LDI, which is a form of derivative contract.

The explanations given for what occurred have ranged from ill-informed to denial to […]

Plans for a UK-crypto, just when real crypto is dying, show a coup d’état has occurred

Published on 6 December 2022

Introduction

Plans to introduce Britcoin, a UK Central Bank Digital Currency or CBDC, must continue apace, according to the nation’s second-in-command, Deputy Governor Sir Jon Cunliffe from the Bank of England. The awkward death of real crypto cannot be permitted to upset the Bank’s applecart, and reality and the opinions of the […]

FTX could be ‘game over’ for Central Bank Digital Currency, and for other dominos: Fintech, Open Banking, the Great Re-set et al

As first published by IREF on www.irefeurope.org as an Online Article on 23rd November 2022:

Published on 2 December 2022

Introduction

Up until recently the proponents of the cluster of financial developments around the Great Re-Set, Decentralized Finance, Central Bank Digital Currency, Financial Inclusion, Fintech, Open Banking et al have had things very much their own way: forming […]

FTX shines a light on crypto people – do we want them replacing our UK cash with their digital currency?

Published on 21 November 2022

Sir Jon Cunliffe, Deputy Governor of Financial Stability, Bank of England, sees no contradiction between the rampant instability on Planet Cryptocurrency and the Bank’s plans to replace our cash with its own UK version of a cryptocurrency. This is the message today from the most senior person responsible for the stability […]

‘CAPTURE’ – a major new paper on the committees considering a UK Central Bank Digital Currency

Published on 7 November 2022

UK payments have, over the last ten years, become increasingly digital and become the domain of a technocratic elite, working in tandem with Big Tech and the major payment card brands.

The UK’s ‘digital payments journey’ thus far has left an amount of damaging debris on the road behind it: Authorized Push […]

‘Liability Driven Investment’ explained: the first bailout of the new Global Financial Crisis

Blog published on 2 November 2022

First published as an IREF online article on irefeurope.org

‘Liability Driven Investment’ or ‘LDI’ is both a nonsense and a truism, and is now a byword for a disaster in the UK financial system.

Here is what happened. UK pension funds became convinced that they would experience a shortfall of resources to […]

ISO20022 – The Great Leap Sideways

Published on 13 October 2022

The payment industry’s migration to the ISO20022 XML data format promises much, or rather the list of promises is long and the same as it has been for a long time, and is very promising: richer data, easier data mining, easier compliance-checking and harmonization (aka everyone else is going to use […]

The Payment Systems Regulator’s PS22/2 Card-acquiring market remedies: final decision = surrender

Published on 6 October 2022

On 6th October 2022 the PSR published its Final Decisions on its major and multi-year ‘work’ on the costs of accepting card payments for merchants. Costs, in this case, focuses on the service fees paid by a merchant to its appointed merchant acquirer. The all-in costs include the deductions-from-face-value, which the […]