Bank of England Describes Future Payments

Sir Jon Cunliffe, Deputy Director Financial Stability at the Bank of England (BoE), has spoken about innovation in payments and money, focusing on the impact and opportunities offered by tokenisation, including the future of cash ¹.

New forms of tokenisation are coming in payments in the form of stablecoins, commercial bank deposits and, perhaps, the Digital Pound. The BoE needs to ensure that these new forms of money fit the key criteria of existing forms of money, robustness and uniformity. By getting regulations and standards right, the Bank also gives certainty and clarity for those seeking to innovate.

If central banks, armed with appropriate powers, can get the regulatory framework right, then risks can be managed. If new advances drive radical change ahead of the regulatory framework being in place, it can be extremely hard, and disruptive, to catch up. It is important that the market does not compete by taking higher risks.