Bank of England Wants Digital Pound Advisers as It Moves to CBDC Design Phase

The Bank of England (BoE) has set up a digital pound advisory group which it is currently recruiting for as the country enters the design phase for its central bank digital currency (CBDC), it announced on Wednesday.

The bank along with the Treasury – the government's finance arm, which has been helping with the country's CBDC work – wants academics and researchers to express their interest in joining the group. A CBDC is digital money issued by a central bank. The Academic Advisory Group is meant to bring together experts across finance, economics, business and more.

"Through this group, we seek to generate expert academic input and promote interdisciplinary discussions on a range of topics related to retail CBDC," the BoE said on its website.

In February, the country launched a consultation on a digital pound which the government and BoE believe is likely needed. That initial consultation closed in June. The BoE plans to run its own experimentation and design phase over the next two years, according to people familiar with the matter.

The bank will also be recruiting for members to join its CBDC engagement forum, which was set up to help it "understand the practical challenges of designing, implementing and operating a CBDC," its website said. The bank has also started asking stakeholders to respond to requests for information on use cases for offline payments and on what merchants will need from a digital pound design.

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