Bank of England Official Discusses Implications of Central Bank Digital Currencies

Bank of England deputy governor for monetary policy Ben Broadbent argued in a speech today that bitcoin is unlikely to obtain widespread adoption – but that central bank-issued digital currencies could have a big impact on the global financial system. In a talk at the London School of Economics, Broadbent focused specifically on the evolving relationship between digital currencies and central banks, a topic that Bank of England staffers have broached in the past. The deputy governor dismissed the possibility that digital currencies such as bitcoin could become widely used as a payment....

The Bank of England has proposed the introduction of a central bank backed digital currency alongside fiat banknotes. The idea of creating a central bank backed digital currency is not a new thing. The digital currency community and central banks of various nations have floated this idea at one point or another. While most nations are yet to act upon it, the Bank of England is already doing the groundwork for such an implementation. A ‘Staff Working Paper‘ published this month as part of the research commissioned by the Bank of England reports that introduction of a Bank of England backed....

A senior central bank official has stated that the priority of the Bank of England is to create a regulatory approach to Fintech as it understands its impact, according to Reuters. Victoria Cleland, the BoE’s Chief Cashier, explained that the risks and advantages of digital currencies and blockchain were being assessed. This announcement by the BoE comes when policymakers in Britain want to know if London will remain the global centre for Fintech or if companies will move to other European countries instead. Cleland said that the BoE was working with firms in the Fintech sector to....

Her Majesty’s Treasury and the Bank of England have revealed the establishment of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) taskforce. According to the announcement, the group’s purpose aims to explore a potential UK CBDC. UK Entities Invoke a CBDC Taskforce to Explore a Central Bank-Issued Digital Currency Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) have been popping up throughout a number of countries and most are still in the exploration phase. A few countries like Venezuela, Sweden, and China are ahead of the game by a longshot in comparison to countries like the U.S., Canada, and....

The Bank of England has been one of the more aggressive central banks to investigate blockchain and distributed ledger technology, but at least one of its officials doesn’t believe widespread adoption will happen anytime soon. Andrew Hauser, the central bank’s executive director for banking, payments and financial resilience, made the remarks during a speech on the history of how the Bank of England developed its settlement systems over the past 20 years. His speech took place at the CREST Twentieth Anniversary Conference on 20th September, an event commemorating the launch of the UK-based....