UK Minister of Finance Holds Public Consultation to Discuss Digital Pound

British Finance Services Minister Andrew Griffith. (photo: Twitter @griffitha)

JAKARTA - On Tuesday, January 10, the UK's Minister for Financial Services Andrew Griffith said that getting the digital pound design right was a bigger priority than its swift launch.

China has been pushing ahead with piloting a digital yuan and the European Central Bank is studying the digital euro, piling pressure on the UK to do the same and keep up with advances in financial technology.

The UK finance ministry plans to launch a public consultation on the digital pound's attributes, in the coming weeks.

"Consultations will say it's an if, not a when. We don't fully do this," Griffith told the UK parliament's Financial Selection Committee, as quoted by Reuters.

“The digital pound raises many public policy issues. We have to do it right. I'd rather be right than be first," said Griffith. "This is going to be a long-term activity."

According to him the first case use of the digital pound may be in the settlement of wholesale financial transactions. But given public policy considerations for digital currencies, wholesale private fiat-backed stablecoins will probably get there first.

The European Union will also publish a bill this year to legally regulate and regulate the digital euro.

Griffith said there would also be public consultations in the coming weeks about the UK's first general regulatory approach to cryptoassets, a sector where consumer protection has been scrutinized in recent weeks.

The crash in bitcoin led to a crypto winter, which saw crypto exchange FTX collapse last year.

The European Union has laid down the world's first comprehensive set of rules to regulate crypto markets, which will receive final approval in the coming weeks, and come into force in 2024.

Griffith said the rules in the UK could be wider to include decentralized finance.

“It is right to complete the base but only the law does that,” said Charles Kerrigan, crypto and digital assets partner at law firm CMS. "Industry still sees the UK as a place of regulatory uncertainty until we have something in the statute book."