NEWS STORY : Treasury and Bank England Make Plans for a Digital Pound
STORY
The HM Treasury and the Bank of England have announced that they are currently considering plans to develop a digital pound or central bank digital currency (CBDC). The digital pound would be a currency that does not exist as physical money in the form of notes or coins, but instead exists in the form of an amount on a computer. The Bank of England and the Treasury are designing the digital pound, which will be launched in the second part of this decade. The Treasury and the Bank of England stressed that one digital pound would equate to the same value as one physical pound coin and that there would be no divergence in their values.
The Bank of England said in a statement:
“The money we issue as the UK’s central bank is the anchor of confidence in our monetary system. This type of money supports the UK’s monetary and financial stability. Today, banknotes are the only type of money we provide for the public to use. Having a digital pound could help us to keep providing this anchor for the UK”.
They added that there were no plans to stop issuing cash:
“Cash is also very important to ensure people are able to exchange one type of money for another. For example, you can withdraw the money you have in a bank account as banknotes at a cash machine. This is known as ‘uniformity’ of money. Having a digital pound could help us to keep this uniformity in a future where the majority of payments are digital”.
RESOURCES
Treasury and Bank of England Press Release
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