Grand Designs – Next Phase In The Digital Pound Build

This article was first published in The Banker on 3 March 2023.

Final decision yet to be made

The world of money is changing. The received wisdom of "cash is king" has long been declining and the world is gradually moving to a more digitised banking space where digital deposits and payments have become dominant; and new forms of currency such as stablecoins and even volatile and unbacked cryptocurrencies have also entered the payments ecosystem. The next big thing is the central bank digital currency (CBDC).

The UK government and Bank of England have been toying with the idea of a UK CBDC (digital Pound) for a while now. In that vein, earlier in February they published a consultation on the next step of their explorations. But if you were hoping to purchase your morning coffee with a digital Pound you will need to hold off until the end of this decade at the earliest.