UK Government Gives Bank of England New Payments Innovation Mandate

The UK government has announced plans to give the Bank of England (BoE) a new responsibility to support innovation in payment systems and emerging forms of digital money.

This new objective will be secondary to the BoE's primary goal of maintaining financial stability, but it will still require the central bank to 'support innovation where doing so would not undermine financial stability.'

The UK government believes that this move will help drive growth and development in the country's financial services sector.

The new objective will cover the regulation of payment systems, including those using digital settlement assets such as stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies designed to maintain a stable value by having their market value pegged to an external reference, typically fiat currency.