As part of Rishi Sunak’s speech to open UK FinTech Week, he mentioned a taskforce for digital currency.
In Brief:
The Treasury and the Bank of England will work together on the taskforce.
They'll explore the potential of a central bank-backed digital currency.
The taskforce would also look at how to deal with current challenges posed by cryptocurrrencies.
What does this mean?
The Bank of England has been looking into the potential for a CBDC for some time now, as China currently leads the way on these efforts but PwC recently reported that the UK is leading Europe in terms of central bank uptake.
FinTech Alliance CEO Phil Vidler commented: “The new Digital Currency taskforce to be co-chaired by the Bank of England and HM Treasury could provide a real opportunity for innovation across the market. It brings together both organisations’ history of innovation and the Bank of England’s current infrastructure, which could enable real innovation in the market, allowing the UK to lead in this space.”
