Bank of England Taps Stablecoins and Digital Pounds in Trade Finance Experiment
The Bank of England's Digital Pound Lab is testing the integration of stablecoins and a future digital pound in trade finance workflows. The lab, which consists of NOBO Finance, Dun & Bradstreet, and Polygon Labs, aims to explore how public and private digital money can work together in cross-border business payments.
The experiment uses no real customers or money but is designed to test future payment infrastructure and interoperability. It focuses on a persistent problem in small business trade finance: delayed transactions due to fragmented verification, manual checks, and settlement processes that take days.
The pilot's most significant workstream involves an electronic bill of lading-backed invoice factoring flow with multi-rail settlement. This structure suggests the digital pound is being explored as part of a wider financial system where different forms of digital money need to interoperate.
Polygon Labs provides infrastructure through its Open Money Stack, including fiat-to-stablecoin conversion and embedded wallets. NOBO brings the trade finance workflow, while Dun & Bradstreet contributes business identity and risk data.