England | Crypto

The UK plans to expand the Bank of England’s remit to support digital payments innovation, including stablecoins, while keeping financial stability first. The UK is moving to put stablecoins at the center of a new Bank of England mandate aimed at supporting innovation in digital payments. The government plans to give the Bank of England, the UK’s central bank, a secondary objective to support innovation in payment systems and emerging forms of digital money, HM Treasury announced on Thursday. The mandate will cover payment systems that use digital settlement assets such as stablecoins, while financial stability will remain the BoE’s primary objective. Read more

The Digital Pound Lab is testing a cross-border trade finance flow combining stablecoin payments with simulated digital pound settlement. The Bank of England’s Digital Pound Lab is testing whether stablecoins and a potential digital British pound can operate within the same cross-border payment flow as part of an experiment focused on trade finance. The experiment involves NOBO Finance, Dun & Bradstreet and Polygon Labs, with an exporter receiving an advance via a stablecoin rail while a UK importer completes settlement using simulated digital pounds, according to a Wednesday announcement from the three companies. The project also includes a separate workstream aimed at creating reusable credit profiles for small businesses by combining transaction data, open-finance information and Dun & Bradstreet’s commercial risk data, with Polygon providing the smart contract infrastructure. Read more

The Bank of England approved HSBC Orion to go live in its Digital Securities Sandbox, with the first Digital Gilt Instrument transaction expected in the first quarter of 2027. HSBC, one of the world’s largest banks, has received approval to operate in the United Kingdom’s Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS), allowing its digital assets platform, HSBC Orion, to support the issuance, servicing and settlement of digital securities. The bank announced Tuesday that HSBC Orion will operate as a digital securities depository within the DSS, a regulatory environment designed to test new technology for securities markets. HSBC said it is the first company approved by the Bank of England to go live in the sandbox. HSBC’s platform will support digitally native bond issuance, including the UK’s planned digital sovereign bond — Digital Gilt Instrument (DIGIT) — and corporate bonds. HSBC said HSBC Orion has enabled more than $5 billion in digital bond issuances globally. Read more

Andrew Bailey reportedly said Bank of England policy remained independent after a meeting with Nigel Farage that included discussions on cryptocurrency. Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey has reportedly denied that lobbying efforts by Nigel Farage influenced the central bank’s approach to a potential central bank digital currency (CBDC), saying policy decisions were made independently. According to a Wednesday report by The Guardian, which obtained a letter written by Bailey, the governor said the BoE is “able to spot” attempts to influence its policymaking. The letter followed a meeting with Farage, during which the two discussed several issues, including cryptocurrencies. “Following our meeting, Mr. Farage spoke with the press outlining that we had discussed a range of topics, including cryptocurrencies,” Bailey reportedly wrote in the letter. “I am happy to confirm that no policy changes have taken place as a result of interventions by Mr. Farage.” Read more

The new framework removes wallet caps, yet keeps systemic sterling stablecoins far below dollar-token scale at launch. The post British pound stablecoins capped to $53B ceiling as Bank of England sets out stablecoin rules appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The Bank of England published draft rules for systemic stablecoins, easing reserve requirements and replacing holding limits with a temporary 40-billion British pound issuance cap. The Bank of England (BoE) published a policy statement and draft rules for systemic stablecoins on Monday, outlining how regulated British pound-backed stablecoins would operate in the United Kingdom. The BoE defines systemic stablecoins as those that are widely used in payments and may pose risks to the UK’s financial stability. HM Treasury is responsible for determining whether a stablecoin falls within the systemic regime. Under the policy statement, systemic stablecoin issuers will be allowed to hold up to 70% of reserves in interest-bearing government debt, up from 60% under the previous proposal. Proposed holding limits have also been replaced with a temporary 40-billion-pound ($52.8 billion) issuance cap. Read more

A House of Lords committee has told the Bank of England to rethink stablecoin caps before the UK's regime is finalized. The Financial Services Regulation Committee published its report, Stablecoins: waiting for regulation, on June 3, turning a technical debate over reserve design into a test of whether the UK can build a pound-denominated stablecoin […] The post Bank of England stablecoin caps may choke the UK’s pound-token market before launch appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The Bank of England proposed limits of 20,000 pounds per coin for individuals and 10 million pounds for businesses.

Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and stablecoins can cross borders in seconds on a Sunday morning. And yet, if a major UK institution needed to move collateral, settle a high-value payment, or shift liquidity between clearing houses over the weekend, much of that activity had to queue up and wait. […] The post Bank of England’s 24/7 settlement plan shows where tokenized finance can enter core markets appeared first on CryptoSlate.

BoE weighs easing UK stablecoin caps and reserve demands after industry backlash, in a move that could decide whether GBP tokens can compete with dollar‑pegged rivals. Update May 14, 2:45 pm UTC: This article has been updated to include comments from Katie Haries, head of policy for Europe at Coinbase. The Bank of England (BoE) is reconsidering parts of its proposed regime for pound sterling stablecoins after digital asset companies warned that holding caps and reserve requirements could stifle adoption and make UK-issued tokens uneconomic. The central bank is looking at alternatives to temporary caps on how many stablecoins individuals and businesses can hold, and is examining whether its requirement that at least 40% of backing assets be held as non-interest-bearing deposits at the BoE is overly conservative, Deputy Governor Sarah Breeden told the Financial Times. Read more

Global regulators will have to confront US policy on dollar-backed stablecoins as they seek international standards for payment tokens, Andrew Bailey said. Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said international regulators will have to “wrestle” with the US over global rules for stablecoins, which are largely denominated in and backed by US dollars. “If ​we want stablecoins to be part of the architecture of payments globally [...] they're ‌only ⁠going to work if we have international standards,” Bailey said at a conference on Friday, according to Reuters.  “Frankly, that, I think, is going to be a coming wrestle with the [US] administration," he added. Read more

The crypto industry in the UK has come out against the Bank of England’s proposed policy that would ban custodial wallets for stablecoins. As the UK considers options to attract and develop the crypto industry at home, the Bank of England (BOE) has put forward several proposals for how it might regulate stablecoins to mitigate perceived financial risks. These have included a ban on custodial wallets for stablecoin holdings. The UK crypto industry, from stablecoin issuers to Bitcoin hardliners, has predictably taken issue with the ban. “This would be a serious misstep for the UK, risking long-term damage that is hard to unwind,” said Benoit Marzouk, CEO of stablecoin issuer tGBP told Cointelegraph. Read more

The parliamentary inquiry comes as regulators warn that stablecoins could drain bank deposits and reshape payments. The House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee has opened an inquiry into proposed stablecoin rules in the United Kingdom, seeking public input on plans put forward by the Bank of England (BoE) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The inquiry will examine how stablecoins could affect traditional financial services such as banking and payments, as well as the opportunities and risks created by their growing use in the UK, the committee said in a Thursday statement. Lawmakers said the review will assess whether the regulatory frameworks proposed by the BoE and the FCA provide “measured and proportionate responses” to developments in the stablecoin market, according to Baroness Noakes, chair of the committee. Read more

Bitcoin could emerge as a long-term winner if global authorities confirm the existence of non-human intelligence, even if the immediate fallout triggers a severe financial shock. Over the weekend, reports emerged that Helen McCaw, a former senior analyst at the Bank of England, urged Governor Andrew Bailey to consider contingency planning for a scenario in […] The post Bitcoin could be your only liferaft as Bank of England experts brace for alien disclosure chaos appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Cross‑party MPs and members of the House of Lords have urged UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves to rein in the Bank of England’s proposed regime for systemic stablecoins. A cross-party group of members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords in the United Kingdom, including former Defense Secretary Sir Gavin Williamson, shadow Science and Tech (AI) Minister Viscount Camrose and the former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s chief whip, Lord Hart, have urged Chancellor Rachel Reeves to intervene over the Bank of England’s proposed regime for systemic stablecoins. In a joint open letter to the chancellor on Thursday, they warned that the Bank of England’s proposals for regulating stablecoins could drive innovation and capital offshore. The parliamentarians said the plans risk turning the UK into a “global outlier” by barring most wholesale use of stablecoins outside the Digital Securities Sandbox, prohibiting interest on reserves and imposing what they call “impractical and anti-innovation” holding caps that could pus...

The Bank of England invites feedback on its proposed stablecoin framework, with the aim of finalizing the rules in the second half of 2026. The United Kingdom’s central bank is moving toward stablecoin regulation by publishing a consultation paper proposing a regulatory framework for the asset class. The Bank of England (BoE) on Monday released a proposed regulatory regime for sterling-denominated “systemic stablecoins,” or tokens it said are widely used in payments and therefore potentially pose risks to the UK financial stability. Under the proposal, the central bank would require stablecoin issuers to back at least 40% of their liabilities with unremunerated deposits at the BoE, while allowing up to 60% in short-term UK government debt. Read more

The UK’s top bank says it will roll out stablecoin rules “just as quickly as the US” amid concerns that it's lagging behind global allies. Bank of England Deputy Governor Sarah Breeden expects the government to keep pace with the US in stablecoin regulation, stating that it is “really important” for the allies to be synchronized on rules governing the $310 billion industry. Speaking at the SALT conference in London on Wednesday, Breeden reportedly said the UK will implement a stablecoin regulatory framework “just as quickly as the US” — rebuffing fears that it is falling behind, particularly after the US passed the landmark GENIUS Act in July. Breeden confirmed that UK regulators are speaking with US authorities as the Bank of England prepares to publish its stablecoin consultation paper on Nov. 10. Read more

The Bank of England is worried that a rise in financiers' lending to data center lending may cause an AI bubble reminiscent of the dot-com crash in the early 2000s. The Bank of England is investigating the rise of financiers lending to data centers as a way to speculate on the future of AI, Bloomberg said. The UK’s top bank has already been examining market risks that could arise if AI companies fail to meet lofty valuations, warning that many could come crashing down in a correction reminiscent of the dot-com bubble in the early 2000s. Now, it is exploring the relationship between AI companies and financiers that are looking to place bets in the AI market, Bloomberg reported on Friday. Read more

The Bank of England is worried that a rise in financiers' lending to data center lending may cause an AI bubble reminiscent of the dot-com crash in the early 2000s. The Bank of England is investigating the rise of financiers lending to data centers as a way to speculate on the future of AI, Bloomberg said. The UK’s top bank has already been examining market risks that could arise if AI companies fail to meet lofty valuations, warning that many could come crashing down in a correction reminiscent of the dot-com bubble in the early 2000s. Now, it is exploring the relationship between AI companies and financiers that are looking to place bets in the AI market, Bloomberg reported on Friday. Read more

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said stablecoins could thrive in a system that separates money from credit, reducing the UK’s reliance on commercial banks. Bank of England (BoE) Governor Andrew Bailey suggested that stablecoins could reduce the United Kingdom’s reliance on commercial banks, signaling a potential shift in the central bank’s stance toward digital assets. In a Wednesday article in the Financial Times, Bailey said that the current financial system combines money and credit creation through fractional reserve banking, in which banks hold a portion of deposits while lending out the rest. Fractional reserve banking is a system in which banks hold only a fraction of customer deposits in reserve and lend out the rest, thereby creating new money through credit expansion. “Most of the assets backing commercial bank money are not risk-free: they are loans to individuals and to companies,” Bailey wrote in the FT. “The system does not have to be organised like this.“ Read more