Bank of England przedstawia wizję nadzoru nad stablecoinami w funtach szterlingach

When the Bank of England publishes a consultation paper with an introduction written by Governor Andrew Bailey, the financial services sector pays close attention. The November 2025 paper on systemic sterling-denominated stablecoins is no exception — it represents the central bank's most detailed vision to date of how digital payment tokens should be regulated in the UK.

Stablecoins as payment infrastructure

The core premise of the Bank's proposal is straightforward: stablecoins that become widely used in everyday payments could pose a risk to UK financial stability, and therefore require regulation proportionate to that risk. This is not a purely theoretical concern. Global stablecoin transaction volume exceeded USD 33 trillion in 2025, and the Bank is positioning itself 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 threshold of "systemic" significance. Non-systemic stablecoins — those not yet widely adopted in payments — remain under FCA supervision alone. However, once a stablecoin crosses the systemic threshold, it enters a dual-regulation 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 notable 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 accompanied the stablecoin market since its inception: if you hold a stablecoin, can you actually redeem it at face value in fiat currency? The answer