UK Treasury Secretary Rishi Sunak instructed the Bank of England to consider issuing a national digital currency called Britcoin. Writes about it Reuters. The authorities will be responsible for the control of the new monetary unit.

Britcoin will become a digital version of the pound sterling, which will allow citizens and entrepreneurs to have accounts directly with the bank and bypass intermediaries when making payments. Presumably, this could change the role of creditors in the country’s financial system.

So far, a decree has been issued on the formation of a special working group with the participation of the Treasury and the Bank of England to conduct relevant studies. Representatives of the latter said that the final decision has not yet been made, but all risks and benefits will be widely discussed with all stakeholders.

The UK is not the first country to take an interest in issuing a digital analogue of money with the support of the Central Bank Digital Currency. The leader is China, which has already introduced the corresponding currency into circulation as part of an experiment.

In early April, the Bank of Russia published a concept for using the digital ruble. In December 2021, the Central Bank plans to release a prototype of the currency, and conduct testing in 2022. Further implementation of the digital ruble will depend on the test results.