Bank of England forms CBDC Academic Advisory Group for proposed digital pound
The Bank of England and HM Treasury have put out an open call for academics and researchers to join its newly formed CBDC Academic Advisory Group (AGG) with the aim of building a “comprehensive and conceptual architecture” for the digital pound.
Bank of England creates AGG to “accelerate” digital pound
The central bank is seeking to form a multidisciplinary group with experts in “monetary policy, finance, competition economics, industrial organisation, behavioural science, law, innovation theory, marketing and business”.
In addition to informing the development of the underlying architecture of the proposed CBDC, the AGG will work in collaboration with innovators from the private sector to conduct proof of concepts and additional experimentation.
“Through this group, we seek to generate expert academic input and promote interdisciplinary discussions on a range of topics related to retail CBDC, and of relevance to our work during the design phase,” the BoE’s call said.
The group’s formation follows a consultation in February, led by the CBDC Taskforce, which indicated that a digital pound could be both necessary and beneficial if delivered. This signalled the beginning of what is now the “design phase” of the project.
A decision to actually deliver a digital pound has yet to be reached, but the formation of the AGG this week will ensure that the project can be “accelerated” if given the green light.
The group is to serve as “a platform for knowledge exchange and research collaboration” and will provide a “wide-ranging and nuanced view on the key questions on CBDCs”.
It will form a key connection between academics and developers and aims to promote “diverse ideas, open debate and perspectives that challenge prevailing wisdom”, everything the effective execution of a digital pound needs.
