Bank of England Boosts Focus on Digital Money, Tokenization

The Bank of England is stepping up its focus on digital money, with Deputy Governor Sarah Breeden highlighting tokenization as a potential way to reduce costs, speed settlement and increase competition.

Speaking at London's City Week on Tuesday, Breeden said tokenization — the representation of assets and money on digital ledgers — could improve the efficiency and functionality of payments and financial markets, provided that trust and interoperability are preserved.

Breeden stressed that central bank money will remain the foundation, or “anchor,” of the monetary system, even as private-sector innovations such as tokenized deposits and regulated stablecoins gain traction.

She said the central bank is working with industry, government and regulators to build a framework that supports innovation without undermining financial stability.

“Alongside traditional bank deposits, people should be able to pay with tokenized bank deposits, regulated stablecoins and, potentially, a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC),” she said, according to a transcript of the speech. “More competition, from a wider range of technologies and business models, should lower costs and improve functionality for users.”

The BoE's CBDC Academic Advisory Group said in January that "retail CBDC is not strictly required to preserve uniformity, but may play a valuable supporting role, particularly as transactional use of cash declines."

Related: Crypto awareness tops 80% among young people in UK: Coinbase survey

BoE moves to modernize settlement infrastructure

The UK is taking additional steps to prepare its financial system for tokenized assets. On Monday, the BoE proposed extending the operating hours of its core settlement infrastructure to near 24/7 availability.

In the proposal, the central bank said longer operating hours would help support cross-border payments and securities settlement as tokenization and other digital asset technologies continue to evolve.

An excerpt of the BoE’s proposal to extend settlement hours. Source: Bank of England

The proposal follows Breeden’s comments earlier this month that the Bank was reconsidering its approach to pound-sterling-denominated stablecoins, including whether to ease limits on how much consumers can hold. The review is intended to reduce friction for early adopters as policymakers seek to strengthen the UK’s position as a competitive hub for digital assets.

The Bank of England has softened is stance on stablecoins in recent months as officials engage more closely with industry groups and revisit earlier proposals that would have imposed stricter reserve and backing requirements.