The BoE joins the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of Canada, which has been working with MIT, but it insists that it’s just research and the two won’t develop a central bank digital currency.
The BOE noted that digital currency would pose a risk to the wider financial system as the industry grows, while the FCA spoke of several concerns that digital currency firms should keep in mind.
Enterprise blockchain services provider TAAL made history this week when it mined the biggest Bitcoin block at 3.87GB, which had 188,000 transactions and collected 9.7 BSV in fees.
A senior executive at the bank said that while it may eventually pursue the central bank digital currency, it would relegate the development of a retail CBDC wallet to the private sector.
The Bank of England is seeking to partner with its international counterparts to put in place stricter regulations for digital currencies, a top central bank official has revealed.
In a recent report, the bank said that digital currencies make up a small percentage of assets in the U.K., but are growing rapidly and have to be regulated.
The Deputy Governor said the risks posed by stablecoins as well as decentralized and derivatives trading on unbacked assets, were enough to require a more hands-on regulatory approach.
The upper house of the U.K.’s parliament, the Lords’ Economic Affairs Committee is calling for public submissions on whether a digital pound should be adopted in the country.
Bank of England describes the new positions as geared towards “helping the team develop its priorities and exploratory work plan for CBDC.”
The taskforce will coordinate exploration of the objectives, use cases, opportunities and risks of a potential CBDC, as well as guide the evaluation of its design features, among other responsibilities.
The Bank of England will not protect commercial banks against the impact of digital currencies, according to deputy governor Sir Jon Cunliffe.
The U.K. Treasury said it was working on proposals for a new regulatory structure for stablecoins and other digital currencies.
