By 164 Shares

The global financial crisis, rise of the international Occupy movement, and most recently the LIBOR scandal, have ensured that issues of trust, accessibility and accountability in financial institutions are firmly embedded in public consciousness.

How money is created, invested and managed in our society is at the forefront of public debate and policy rhetoric. But much discussion regarding ringfencing, regulation and stewardship has been reactive, focusing on fixing institutions which may no longer be fit-for-purpose. There has been little holistic policy analysis of the viable and sustainable models which could be developed to help make our economy and society more resilient to such shocks in the future.

Alongside the demise of the City, the UK is at the forefront of sustainable financial innovation, and the 'quiet revolution' of co-operative models of economic and financial collaboration. Now is the time to realise the latent economic potential that can be harnessed when citizens are more participative and engaged as financial actors. We have seen recent significant growth in the use of community shares and bonds, alternative financial models of social investment and peer-to-peer lending.

The objective of ResPublica's new project is to capture the range of financial tools and intermediaries that could truly revolutionise the way SMEs, social businesses and renewable energy markets raise capital. Peer-to-peer networks, new models of infrastructure finance and resurgent traditional models such as co-operative finance can provide long term, engaged capital that can deliver real benefits to address community needs and provide wider benefits to our economy.

More specifically, the project will catalogue the extent to which the state is using a vast array of public policy interventions to underpin conventional institutional finance; demonstrate the potential for alternative, independent and unsubsidised models of local, peer-to-peer and social finance; and charter the next steps for building the new functionalities and intermediaries which will make up the new institutions in the emerging market.  

The project will be a flagship output of our New Economies; Innovative Markets workstream, and is now open to external engagement from third party organisations.  For the next stage, ResPublica would like to establish a consortium of partners from the public, private and third sectors, who will feed in to our further research and debate in this area and benefit from co-branding on publications and events.

If you would like further information, or to discuss partnering on this venture, please contact caroline.macfarland@respublica.org.uk.

Join the discussion Have opinions on this matter? Why not get involved and comment on this below.

Become a Member Joining ResPublica give you an exclusive amount of features. Gain early access to ResPublica events, contribute to topics and much more.