Josh Ryan-Collins

Josh joined nef in 2006 and works in the Finance and Business team leading work on monetary reform.  He is the lead author of nef's recently published guide to the UK monetary system - Where does money come from? - which sets out in non-technical language how commercial banks dominate the creation and allocation of credit and money.  He is now working on the implications of this model and more democratic alternatives, including strategic credit creation by governments or central banks, full reserve banking and complementary currency systems.

Josh's other main project is the development of a mobile- and web-enabled payment platform for complementary currency schemes to enable them to upscale and be more widely accepted by local authorities and other institutions.  He is a founding member and Director of the Brixton Pound, the UK’s first urban local currency, which was launched in South London in September 2009 and which was the first pilot to use the platform in September 2011.  Josh is also a Fellow of QOIN, the Dutch complementary currency consultancy. 

Josh also has experience at nef working on the economics of housing and land, theories of efficiency and value in the public sector, local economic development and regeneration, coproduction and timebanking.   He previously worked as a marketing consultant in the private sector, for the UK Cabinet Office in a Strategic Communications role and for an economic development consultancy.  He has a BA in sociology and an MA in Industrial Relations from the University of Warwick and is currently studying for a PhD at the University of Southampton School of Management in the Centre for Banking, Finance and Sustainable Development where he is examining historical examples of strategic credit creation and guidance by governments.