UK Will Need New Laws to Accommodate Future Digital Pound, Lawyers Say |
Posted: May 23, 2023 |
To accommodate a digital pound, the U.K. will need to either enact new laws or change existing financial and data regulations, two attorneys told CoinDesk. The Bank of England and the U.K. Treasury are looking for input from the public on their concepts for a digital pound, which authorities believe may eventually be required. If the country decides to have a central bank digital currency (CBDC), new legislation will be required to lay out the characteristics of a digital pound, and existing data, privacy, and anti-money laundering rules should be amended to accommodate such a currency, two lawyers told CoinDesk. However, the government is unlikely to make a decision on issuing one for at least the next couple of years. According to Louise Abbott, partner at UK-based Keystone Law, "There is no such thing as a central bank digital currency in this country, so they would need to create new legislation around what that would look like and that's part of the consultation process." Simmons & Simmons partner George Morris mirrored Abbott's remarks. The European Union, which borders the United Kingdom, intends to publish a bill outlining the details of a digital euro this year. The finer elements of digital euro applications and the supporting technology will be covered in this. The U.K. has so far tried to achieve comparable goals by expanding current frameworks to encompass digital assets, so it will probably adopt a similar strategy to the digital pound. In contrast to the EU, which has chosen to develop new regulatory regimes to address crypto assets or even a digital euro.
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