The Sunday Times, a newspaper in the United Kingdom, reported that the Bank of England is forming a team of 30 people to create a digital pound.
This team, according to the Central Bank's website, will include security architects and developers for the CBDC project.
Ian Taylor, advisor to CryptoUK, said that such a number of staff is "significant" and shows the seriousness of their plans.
In April 2021, the Treasury and Central Bank set up a working group to study CBDC, and the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee also joined in. Despite this, the regulator's chairman, Andrew Bailey, expressed doubts about the digital pound sterling. Then in February 2023, Jeremy Hunt of the UK Treasury said the CBDC could be issued sometime before 2025, but not earlier.
Cathy Fortune, head of digital at the Bank of England, recognised that different financial instruments can exist in tandem, such as national digital currencies and stablecoins.
