UK Government Tasks BoE with Fostering Payment Innovation

The UK government has tasked the Bank of England with fostering innovation in payment systems and digital money while maintaining financial stability as its top priority. This new duty will sit alongside the Bank's primary mandate to protect and enhance financial stability.

According to officials, this change is intended to help regulation keep pace with fast-moving technology and create a more supportive environment for new payment methods to develop safely. The Bank of England will have to report to Parliament each year on how it is advancing the innovation objective, providing a public measure of whether the regulatory approach is keeping up with technological change.

City Minister Lucy Rigby stated that advances in digital payments, including tokenisation and distributed ledger technology, could reshape financial markets worldwide. Bank of England Deputy Governor Sarah Breeden welcomed the decision, saying it would strengthen existing work with government and other authorities to maintain public confidence while supporting innovation in UK payments.