Jesse Griffiths

Report – A trillion dollars of climate risk: the case for a systemic risk buffer | Finance Watch

The world’s 60 largest banks hold $1.6 trillion USD in credit exposure tied to fossil-fuel activities - new @financewatch.bsky.social research:

www.finance-watch.org/policy-porta...

Write to your MP: Divest our pensions from risky fossil fuels! UK pensions invest £88 billion in fossil fuels, causing the equivalent of 80% of the annual emissions of the entire country through fossil fuel funding alone. This puts both our planet and pension…

Something quick & important to do today: write to your MP asking them to support rule changes to divest all pensions from fossil fuel expansion:

actionnetwork.org/letters/writ...

Come and help us transform UK finance rules for social and economic justice - we're looking for new board members! Especially those with expertise in policy, comms or fundraising.

DM if you want to chat about it. Full deeds here:

financeinnovationlab.org/wp-content/u...

Changing Finance: new this month - September - Finance Innovation Lab The greening finance battleground The battle for the soul of greening finance in the UK. Here’s why the financial risk-based approach to climate change is failing. A more proactive approach,…

My latest Changing Finance roundup is out:
🌱 Why the UK’s approach to greening finance is failing
⚠️ Could private credit spark the next financial crisis?
💸 The gender wealth & pensions gaps
🌍 Who really owns Britain?

Read it here 👉 financeinnovationlab.org/changing-fin...

3 x Trustees (financial system policy, comms, and fundraising) At Finance Innovation Lab we believe in a financial system that serves people and planet. Our financial system has become disconnected from the real needs of people, the environment, the wider economy...

📢Volunteer recruitment📢 Could you help @TheFinanceLab transform the financial system for the better? Apply to join our board of trustees! Find out more and apply.

app.beapplied.com/apply/yg7lao...

Closes 15 October 2025.

European banks face significant vulnerability to ecosystem degradation and climate change - Communications Earth & Environment | Andrej Ceglar In our new study we demonstrate how the economy and banks in the euro area are critically dependent on ecosystem services and how they simultaneously contribute to biodiversity loss through their biodiversity...

72% of EU companies have a high dependency on at least one ecosystem service, and most of the ecosystem footprint is supported by just 100 banks (of the 2500 banks analyzed). Nice short summary of new academic paper:

www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

The gender wealth gap in the UK is 21% - new @womensbudgetgrp.bsky.social research
www.wbg.org.uk/wp-content/u...

Nearly all of this is due to pensions wealth. Another reason why we need fundamental reform of the pensions system:
financeinnovationlab.org/our-work/fai...

The Global Anti-Financial Crime System is Broken Following the crowd and maintaining the status quo is comfortable – and the kleptocrats, corrupt and criminals hope that does not change.

"The Global anti-financial crime system is broken" - Sobering from @rusi.bsky.social

Good on the problem of relying on FIs as police. There's a deeper systemic issue: a system designed to service international capital is likely to be easy for criminals to use.

www.rusi.org/explore-our-...

The Crypto Crises Are Coming Simon Johnson warns that new US legislation leaves the industry just where it wants to be: without regulatory safeguards.

"The crypto crises are coming" - thanks to new US legislation.

Crypto is also a boon for money launderers and serves little economic purpose.... so we should be using regulation to curb it, not encourage it, as the UK is threatening to do.

www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/u...

We're recruiting - Join our Trustee Board - Finance Innovation Lab We’re looking for up to three new trustees to join our board from January 2026. We’re particularly interested in people with experience in financial sector policy, communications and fundraising. You’...

Want to volunteer your time and expertise to help us fundamentally change UK finance rules?

Apply to be a trustee of Finance Innovation Lab - DM me if you'd like to chat, and thanks for sharing!

More diets here: financeinnovationlab.org/join-our-tru...

Data Dashboard | Who Owns Britain An interactive Data Dashboard exploring who owns and profits from Britain’s essential services.

Who Owns Britain? Super interesting and important work from @cmmonwealth.bsky.social

www.common-wealth.org/interactive/...

UK finance lobby’s growing influence threatens our interests The government is overlooking the lessons of history – and the financial sector’s tendency to cause harm

UK finance lobby’s growing influence threatens our interests - from @mickmcateer.bsky.social

www.opendemocracy.net/en/uk-financ...

@opendemocracy.net

Publicly-listed companies lack credible climate transition plans as emissions intensity set to overshoot, report warns - Transition Pathway Initiative 98% of companies have not disclosed plans to shift capital away from carbon-intensive assets or to align spending with their long-term decarbonisation goals.  P

Shocking: 98% of publicly listed companies 'lack credible climate transition plans'

Report from @tpicatlse.bsky.social examining 2000+ companies = 3/4 of global publicly listed equities.

[Why we need govts + regulators to step up]

www.transitionpathwayinitiative.org/publications...

3 reasons why lighter crypto regulation is a bad idea:

1. High risk of financial crisis
2. "Cryptoassets are increasingly used for laundering all forms of proceeds of crime." (NRA)
3. Crypto = speculative asset, not a support for investment

www.ft.com/content/3b81...

The tragedy of the ‘measure to manage’ green financial policy paradigm Josh Ryan-Collins, Professor in Economics and Finance, UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose

5 reasons why the financial-risk based approach to climate change has failed - @jryancollins.bsky.social

1. Uncertainty not risk
2. Single materiality
3. Complexity & opacity of system
4. Conflicts of interest
5. Prices not only things affecting lending/ investment

medium.com/iipp-blog/th...

Regulatory_Environment_Pillar_Cross-Cutting_Issues_Consultation.pdf | Jesse Griffiths Over the summer, the government released important – and potentially damaging – proposals to change how regulators interpret their role and mandates. These proposals, open for consultation until...

Dangerous financial sector deregulation alert : a new proposal to stop financial sector regulators from considering non-statutory issues, including environmental impacts, or impacts on financial exclusion, when setting most rules for the system:
www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

Timely advice for UK from a Fed. Reserve Governor on financial crises:

".... lessons for policymakers: maintain a through-the-cycle perspective rather than believing "this time is different"; resist pressure to loosen regulations during boom times. "

uk.investing.com/news/economy...

The government’s new approach to Financial Services risks undermining its growth mission and the Industrial Strategy Having read the government’s new Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy, I fear that it risks undermining the government’s broader growth mission and Industrial Strategy by prioritisin...

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

Here's my analysis:

www.linkedin.com/pulse/govern...

Europe | Still Banking on Coal European banks have channeled $20 billion to the coal industry since Glasgow. Europe’s biggest coal banks are Barclays from the UK ($4 billion), Deutsche Bank from Germany ($2 billion), BNP Paribas…

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

www.stillbankingoncoal.org/report/europe

💰 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: lnkd.in/es9cc4gY
#ClimateRisk #Pensions

How the next financial crisis starts The climate shocks that could trigger wider market turmoil

How the next financial crisis starts on.ft.com/46dSz0R

How the next financial crisis starts - long read focussing on the impact of physical risk 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.