{"id":1171586,"date":"2026-08-27T03:24:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T03:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1171586\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T03:24:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T03:24:20","slug":"bank-of-england-welcomes-plan-to-drive-payments-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1171586\/","title":{"rendered":"Bank of England Welcomes Plan to Drive Payments Innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The British Treasury plans to give the Bank of England<\/a> a new \u201csecondary objective\u201d to support innovation in payments technology and digital currencies, including stablecoins, Reuters reported<\/a> Wednesday (Aug. 26).<\/p>\n

The proposed objective aims to ensure that regulation keeps up with changes in technology, and it would require the bank to report annually to parliament on its progress, according to the report.<\/p>\n

City Minister Lucy Rigby<\/a> said in the report: \u201cWhilst financial stability will always remain the Bank\u2019s primary objective, this secondary objective will support the Bank to continue to drive innovation in payments and digital finance, ensuring that the UK remains a global leader in financial services.\u201d<\/p>\n

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While the U.K. has a new government under Prime Minister Andy Burnham<\/a>, the previous government\u2019s \u201cpro-growth approach\u201d to financial services regulation is continuing, the report said.<\/p>\n

The Financial Times reported<\/a> Wednesday that the new objective signals that ministers want the Bank of England to do more to promote the U.K. as a hub for digital assets.<\/p>\n

The Bank of England has been criticized by crypto companies that say it has taken too conservative an approach to digital assets, and the new objective is likely to be welcomed by financial services executives at a time when traditional banks and asset managers are exploring the use of blockchain technology, according to the report.<\/p>\n

The Bank of England aims to encourage the growth of regulated stablecoins pegged to the pound. In recent months, it has laid out planned stablecoin rules, eliminated plans for ownership limits<\/a> on U.K. stablecoins after crypto executives said that would hamper growth, and lowered the proportion of assets backing stablecoins that must be held in zero-interest accounts at the central bank, the report said.<\/p>\n

The new statutory objective will be included in a Financial Services and Markets Bill that is set to be debated in the House of Lords in September, per the report.<\/p>\n

Sarah Breeden<\/a>, deputy governor for financial stability at the Bank of England, said in the report: \u201cThe bank is doing a huge amount, together with government and other authorities, to maintain trust and drive innovation in UK payments. This new secondary objective will further support that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The British Treasury plans to give the Bank of England a new \u201csecondary objective\u201d to support innovation in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1171587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5008],"tags":[936,748,16109,393,4884,12,305066,3279,34950,16,15,3281],"class_list":["post-1171586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-england","tag-bank-of-england","tag-britain","tag-digital-currency","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-news","tag-payments-technology","tag-pymnts-news","tag-stablecoins","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-whats-hot"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117165337430172511","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1171586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1171586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1171586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1171587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1171586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1171586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1171586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}