UK's Bank of England launches digital pound project as 'new form' of money

As some of you may have seen, the Bank of England and the Treasury have today published, as a Consultation Paper, the report of the Bank of England – HM Treasury Taskforce on the introduction in the UK of a central bank digital currency – a ‘digital pound’. So I am grateful for the opportunity today to set out some of the thinking behind the report and the next steps we propose. First, however, I should set out the headline conclusions of the Taskforce. Our assessment is that on current trends it is likely that a retail, general purpose digital central bank currency - a digital pound – will be needed in the UK. This would be a new, digital form of money, issued by the Bank of England for use by households and businesses for everyday payments. A digital pound would be a very substantial financial infrastructure project that would take several years to complete. It would, as many in this audience know, have major implications for the way we transact with each other and, more broadly, for the financial sector and the economy in general. The Taskforce’s conclusion is that we are not yet at a point where a firm decision can be made to implement a digital pound. tweet at 10:31am: BOE'S CUNLIFFE: DIGITAL WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY BE REQUIRED. tweet at 10:34am: BOE'S CUNLIFFE: THE UK WOULD CAP DIGITAL POUND HOLDINGS AT £20,000 PER PERSON. tweet at 10:38am: Boe's cunliffe: we have not yet decided whether a digital pound would employ digital ledger technology.

Good afternoon. It’s a pleasure to be here in Québec to speak to you about monetary policy and the economy. As we approach the three-year mark of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, we are also entering a new phase in monetary policy. In 2022, we faced an overheated economy and high inflation, and we responded forcefully, increasing our policy interest rate rapidly. The year ahead will be different. In January, after eight consecutive interest rate increases, we said that we expect to hold the policy rate at its current level, conditional on the outlook for inflation. We are pausing to assess how well our interest rate increases are working to bring inflation down. With inflation above 6%, we are sti tweet at 12:31pm: BoC's Macklem: - We Expect Economic Growth To Be Close To Zero For The First Three Quarters Of 2023 - More Hikes Will Be Needed If Wage Growth Doesn't Moderate Alongside Inflation Expectations And Pricing Behaviour Doesn't Normalize tweet at 12:31pm: BoC's Macklem: - We Need To Pause Rates Before We Slow The Economy And Inflation Too Much, That Is What We Are Doing Now - Inflation Is Turning The Corner, Monetary Policy Is Working, Inflation Is Still Too High tweet at 12:32pm: BoC's Macklem: - If Upside Risks Materialize, We Are Prepared To Raise Rates - Data Suggest Core Inflation Will Start To Decline In The Months Ahead, Excess Demand Appears To Have Peaked - Risks To The Inflation Forecast Are Balanced, But We Continue To Focus More On Upside Risks