Ministers to Boost Innovation in Payments with New Objective for Bank of England (U.K. HMT)
The U.K’s HM Treasury (U.K. HMT) announced that the Bank of England will receive a new secondary objective supporting innovation in payment systems and digital money, subordinate to its primary financial-stability mandate. The change extends an approach already used for central counterparties and securities depositories under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 to systemic payment systems, including those using digital settlement assets such as stablecoins; the Bank will report annually to Parliament. Officials framed the move as necessary to keep pace with technologies like tokenization and distributed ledger technology while preserving the U.K.’s standing in financial services. Implementation requires amendments to the Financial Services and Markets Bill, next debated in the Lords on September 7-9, 2026. [U.K. HMT]
BTW if you want to see a complete database of my DFC-related posts going back years, including many that didn’t make the Daily Digest cut, click here.
FYI I produce a monthly digest of digital fiat currency (DFC) developments exclusively for the official sector (e.g., central banks, ministries of finance and international financial institution (e.g., the BIS, IMF, OECD, World Bank)) plus academics and firms that are active in the DFC space (commercial banks, technology providers, consultants, etc.). (DFCs include central bank digital currency (CBDC), stablecoins and tokenized deposits.) It goes out via email on the first business day of every month, and if you’re interested in being on the mailing list, please email me at john@kiffmeister.com.
