Central Bank Digital Currencies

At Mansion House, the government committed that HM Treasury and the Bank of England will continue to explore a potential retail central bank digital currency, the digital pound. No decision has been taken on whether to launch a digital pound. This work will provide the evidence base to make such a decision, providing a rigorous view of the costs and benefits and take account of wider trends in money and payments, both domestically and internationally.

HM Treasury and Bank of England continue to engage internationally on a variety of payments topics, including through G7 engagement. This includes the digital pound.

Irrespective of whether the government decides to issue the digital pound, work undertaken during the design phase of the project will support private innovation in digital currency technologies through partnership with the private sector on proofs of concept and experiments. It will also deepen the retail payments expertise of the UK public authorities and support the UK in its ambition to further build its global leadership on payments and fintech innovation.