The government's new Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness strategy risks undermining its industrial policy & growth mission. Here's my analysis: .

Barclays is the bigger financer of coal in Europe - new report.

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💰 UK pensions (£3trn) are still backing fossil fuels—even as climate shocks threaten to wreck the economy and our retirements. We back an amendment to the Pensions Schemes Bill to ban thermal coal + review fossil fuel risk. Here's my NZI piece on this:

How the next financial crisis starts - long read focussing on the impact of climate change on insurers, and how this could lead to property price falls that could trigger a crisis.

📘 Bottom line:.This is a thoughtful strategy with promising signs — but it’s not yet the step change we need. Major gaps on inequality, financial resilience, and the role of finance. Would love to hear how others are interpreting it. #IndustrialStrategy #Finance #UKPolicy.

🤝 Partners named, but barely engaged.Trade unions get a mention. Civil society? Once. Real transformation needs deeper, lasting engagement — not just business and Whitehall.

And if we’re serious about regional growth — where’s the plan for regional banks?. Other countries use them to support SMEs and local economies. In the UK, SME lending has fallen. We need more than tweaks — we need structural reform. A Fair Banking Act should be on the table.

🏗️ Public investment and regional finance: not bold enough.Scaling up the British Business Bank & National Wealth Fund is good. But they’re still small. Let them operate as real banks, able to leverage their capital and issue bonds. That would change the game.

There’s enthusiasm for fintech, deregulation and capital markets. But no mention of financial crises — which are baked into our current system — or of the UK’s role in enabling dirty money and tax dodging.

🏦 Finance is a priority — but should it be?.It’s listed as a key sector, but the strategy ignores a major tension:.Do we want finance to serve global capital or UK investment?. These aren’t the same — and often conflict.

🌱 Growth — but what kind?.It’s all-in on growth and productivity — but says little about inclusive or sustainable growth. The real drivers of the cost of living crisis — wealth inequality, income gaps, uneven opportunity — barely get a mention.

📘 At 140+ pages, the strategy clearly tries to break from business-as-usual: more long-termism, state capacity, sector focus. There’s much to like — and much still unresolved. I'll focus on the role of the financial sector in the strategy.

Here’s my take on the UK’s new Industrial Strategy — and what’s still missing 🧵.A serious piece of work, with big ambitions. But also some major omissions. My analysis: 👇.

The 2025 Financial Secrecy Index confirms the UK's shameful position as a major enabler of companies & individuals who hide their money from the rule of law, with 4 of the 20 worst offenders: Guernsey (9) BVI (16) Caymans (19) UK (20). #stopdirtymoney.

Great article: how a lack of financing (on the right terms) holds back proven technologies, not just novel ones. The National Wealth Fund should back proven tech like wind, solar, retrofitting where the market fails to scale up. . @NEF @GreenAllianceUK.

Interesting article on how China is using financial sector policy to boost its green economy. Key tools, which could be used in the UK include giving cheap loans for green investments, and reducing the cost of capital through the collateral framework.

The richest 50 families in the UK have more wealth than the bottom half of the population. A small wealth tax on just the people in the Sunday Times Rich List could have raised £160bn for public services . .

Major coalition pensions campaign launched today - please sign petition & share!.. Calls on govt to truly fix the system to deliver decent pensions for all, invest in the just transition, & phase out destructive investment.

America is becoming the greatest tax haven in history - from Joseph Stiglitz.

Here's my succinct roundup of financial system news for this month - enjoy! . Main stories are: poor enforcement of economic crime rules; how the financial system is/isn't adapting to the climate crisis. Oh & whether the whole system will collapse .