Pro-indy group stages 'currency conference' amid SNP frustration

The Scottish Currency Group (SCG) said the two-day conference, which will bring together economics experts and former banking executives, comes amidst “little meaningful progress” in the SNP’s position on the currency question, an issue it described as a “fatal flaw” in the 2014 independence referendum campaign.  

Sessions at the event will focus on the theme of preparing the way for a dedicated Scottish currency and a Scottish reserve bank. The group spearheading the discussions was formed four years ago as a result of dissatisfaction over how the currency issue was being addressed.

In recent years, the Scottish Government’s currency policy has largely been based on the 2018 Sustainable Growth Commission report, which called for an independent Scotland to retain the pound for around a decade post-independence, outwith a formal currency union - a process known as sterlingisation. An economic prospectus published in 2022 by Nicola Sturgeon’s administration proposed that post-independence, Scotland would continue to use the pound sterling “for a period,” before adopting a Scottish pound.

Those behind the SCG event, taking place at Dunfermline’s Carnegie Conference Centre, said it would unite economists, academics, banking professionals, and think tanks to undertake analysis on currency options amid a “lack of progress on currency preparedness” by the Scottish Government. 

The group’s chair, Ian Stewart, said: “Many of us within the Scottish Currency Group share a conviction that we lost in 2014 largely because the SNP’s position on currency lacked credibility. Ten years on we have seen little meaningful progress in correcting that fatal flaw in the independence proposition. The purpose of this conference is to end the stagnation and build confidence in the prospect of a Scottish currency and Scottish reserve bank.”   

Those speakers confirmed to date include: Dr Thibault Laurentjoye, assistant professor in economics at Aalborg University business school in Denmark; Dr Jón Egilsson, a former chair of the Icelandic Central Bank's supervisory board; Malan Johansen, executive director of Landsbanki Føroya, the Faroe Islands governmental bank; and Dr Robbie Mochrie, associate professor of economics at Heriot-Watt University. 

The group’s convenor, Dr Tim Rideout, a former member of the SNP 's policy development committee, pointed to a recent paper by Dr Laurentjoye which looked at currency options for an independent Wales. The analysis, commissioned by the Welsh parliament’s corporate body, concluded that the introduction of a Welsh pound would grant Wales the autonomy to enact desired policies and ensure “fiscal resilience.” 

Dr Rideout said: “That such an analysis has been published for Wales, a country which is arguably much earlier in its journey towards independence than us, is suggestive of a lack of serious thinking by the SNP.

“The independence movement has waited for ten years for a credible, ambitious currency proposal from the SNP. We simply can’t wait any longer, and so this conference is an opportunity for the independence movement to initiate that progress ourselves.”