A group of Bristolian traders have launched their own currency for the town, backed by the local council and a credit union.
The ‘Bristol Pound' will be available as paper, and can also be traded electronically. Ciaran Mundy, the director of the Bristol Pound, said the currency would aim to stop local money flowing out of Bristol, and into London or offshore. "Big companies just hoover up money from a local area," he told the BBC. However, Ben Yearsley, investment manager at Bristol-based Hargreaves Lansdown, said the idea would fail to boost local spending. "It will merely move money from one sector to another, from national firms to local ones," he said. National firms may be put off: "A lot of p...
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