Bank of England przedstawia wizję nadzoru nad stablecoinem opartym na funcie szterlingu

When the Bank of England publishes a consultation paper introduced by Governor Andrew Bailey, the financial services industry pays attention. The November 2025 paper on systemic sterling-denominated stablecoins is no exception — it represents the central bank's most detailed vision yet for how digital payment tokens should be regulated in the United Kingdom.

Stablecoins as payment infrastructure

The core premise of the bank's proposal is clear: stablecoins that become widely used for everyday payments could pose risks to the financial stability of the United Kingdom and therefore require regulation proportionate to that risk. This is not a theoretical concern. Global stablecoin transaction volume surpassed 33 trillion dollars in 2025, and the bank aims to manage the systemic consequences before they materialize, rather than after the fact.

What sets this proposal apart from earlier regulatory approaches is its focus on the "systemic" threshold. Non-systemic stablecoins — those not yet widely used for payments — remain under the supervision of the FCA alone. Once a stablecoin crosses the systemic threshold, however, it falls under a dual regulatory regime overseen by both the Bank of England and the FCA.

Backing requirements

The most significant aspect of the proposal concerns how stablecoin issuers must back their tokens. The bank proposes that systemic issuers hold a portion of their backing assets in short-term UK government debt and maintain deposit accounts at the Bank of England itself. This is a remarkable step: in practice, it integrates stablecoin issuers into the same financial infrastructure that underpins traditional banking.

For users, this matters because it addresses a fundamental question that has shadowed the stablecoin market since its inception: if you hold a stablecoin, can you actually redeem it at face value in fiat currency? The bank's answer is to require exactly that — "stab