Bank of England przedstawia wizję nadzoru nad stablecoinami w funtach szterlingach

When the Bank of England publishes a consultation paper introduced by Governor Andrew Bailey, the financial services sector pays close attention. Released in November 2025, the paper on systemic sterling-denominated stablecoins is no exception — it sets out 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 straightforward: stablecoins that become widely used for everyday payments could pose a risk to the UK's financial stability, and therefore require regulation proportionate to that risk. This is not a purely theoretical concern. Global stablecoin transaction volumes exceeded 33 trillion USD 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" status. Non-systemic stablecoins — those not yet widely adopted in payments — remain under the sole supervision of the FCA. 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 major 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 genuinely redeem it at face value in fiat currency? The answer