Stablecoins must meet the same rules as fiat, and proper supervision is necessary to ensure financial stability. said the Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey.
According to the official, ‘stablecoins’ lack ‘guaranteed value’ — one of the main characteristics that people look for when investing.
For this reason, authorities must focus on delivering a rigorous regulatory framework, akin in nature to that applied to traditional financial products.
“Society should expect a guaranteed value for digital money. Confidence in this is necessary to maintain financial stability,” Bailey explained.
The official noted that digital money should not exist only in the form of CBDC. There is a need to create an “anchor for the value of all types, including new digital ones, and to provide maximum scope for innovations in payment services,” he proposed.
In April 2021, the Bank of England and the Treasury set up a joint working group to study CBDC. The Lords’ Economic Affairs Committee joined this process.
However, Bailey doubted the need to create a digital pound.
Earlier in February 2023, Britain’s finance minister Jeremy Hunt stated that the CBDC launch could be possible this decade, but not before 2025.
In March, Katie Forchun, head of the Bank of England’s digital department, allowed the coexistence in the future of different forms of money, including CBDC and stablecoins.