Bank of England And HM Treasury Announce Taskforce to Launch “UK CBDC”

The Bank of England and HM Treasury in a joint statement announced the launch of a CBDC task force that would be responsible for exploring different potential use cases for a “UK CBDC.” Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) has become a priority for many countries in the wake of the rising popularity of digital assets and the progress of China in the same field.

The joint task force would be headed by Jon Cunliffe,  Deputy Governor for Financial Stability at the Bank of England along with Katharine Braddic, the  HM Treasury’s Director General of Financial Services. Apart from launching a CBDC task force, the bank would also set up a separate unit for CBDC that would monitor all the developments concerning the development of the sovereign digital currency.

The joint task force would be responsible for

• Coordinate exploration of the objectives, use cases, opportunities, and risks of a potential UK CBDC.
• Guide evaluation of the design features a CBDC must display to achieve our goals.
• Support a rigorous, coherent, and comprehensive assessment of the overall case for a UK CBDC.
• Monitor international CBDC developments to ensure the UK remains at the forefront of global innovation.

Bank of England to Set up Technical Engagement Forum for CBDC

Apart from the joint task force the Bank of England also announced the setting up of two forums one for general suggestions and the other for technical suggestions. Both these forums have been created to bring in engagement from the stakeholders of the project. The Engagement forum would focus on different functional needs and use cases for sovereign digital currency.

The Technical Forum would be more focused on the technical aspects of the project where the stakeholders would responsible for suggesting technical solutions that comes in the way. The members of the forum would constitute financial institutions, academia, fintech, infrastructure providers, and technology firms.