In an announcement at IFGS, Lucy Rigby KC MP told attendees the UK government has published details on how it will support and modernise payment systems infrastructure.
This will mean establishing a single, coherent framework for both traditional and tokenised payments, including both stablecoins and tokenised deposits.
She added that the government will soon be publishing a consultation inviting the payments sector to feedback on the proposals.
“This is a huge strategic opportunity for the UK, but it’s not just as an opportunity, frankly, it’s more of a necessity. This is the way that our financial markets are going. We have to be at the forefront. We will get left behind unless we embrace innovation now, stablecoins specifically,” Rigby said.
“We recognise this is a massive growth area. The potential for efficiencies and for consumer benefits is huge, and we want to get it right.”
Rigby also announced a new piece of legislation today reducing administrative burdens on companies wanting to provide stablecoin payments.
The packaged announced today also includes details on exploring how the regulation of payments services should adapt to payments conducted by AI agents, as well as providing the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) with new powers to regulate the future of Open Banking that will include underpinning the development of new Open Banking payments within commercial schemes.
“This [announcement] is about the direction of travel, and this is really important, because what we want to do is to build on these things to further strengthen our capital markets and ensure that we are getting capital into the places we want it to be in order to drive growth,” Rigby added.
