Central Bank Digital Currencies: Plotting a Path Ahead for the UK

As HM Treasury and the Bank of England continue to explore the potential of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) for the UK, RUSI’s Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies is delighted to host this event in partnership with the House of Lords’ Economic Affairs Committee to discuss the publication of the Committee’s new report on CBDCs.

Across a series of hearings, the Committee’s inquiry on CBDCs considered a range of issues including:

• The main benefits and risks of a CBDC.
• The extent to which the proposed benefits of a CBDC could be achieved through improvements to existing payment systems.
• How concerns over privacy and traceability of payments should be addressed.
• The effects a CBDC might have on the financial sector and on competition and innovation.
• The effect CBDCs might have on the economic foreign policies or geopolitical influence of different countries and economic areas, including the implications for the effectiveness of economic sanctions.

This event will provide the Committee with an opportunity to present its report.

We are therefore delighted to be joined by Economic Affairs Committee member Lord King of Lothbury to present the highlights of this new report, along with discussants Jason Shepherd of TRSS International and Frances Coppola, financial economist and a columnist for Coindesk.

The discussion will be chaired by Tom Keatinge, Director of RUSI’s Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies.

The event will be held on a hybrid basis, both at RUSI’s office and online.