(2 February 2026 – United Kingdom) The Bank of England (BoE) is moving to Phase 2 of the Digital Pound Lab.
The BoE is currently in a ‘design phase’ for a digital pound and is seeking to establish a clear proposition for a United Kingdom Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
During Phase 1, two sets of demonstration were developed across Bank-developed use cases and participant use cases. Phase 2 tests innovative use cases that demonstrate payment services that do not yet exist while also gauging the likely impact of a digital pound on British enterprises.
“The lab demonstrates a genuinely impressive range of use cases covering P2P, PoS including cashback, Ecommerce, DvP, Trade finance, Tourist Wallets, integrated payments with 3rd party application and seamless interoperability with DLT based digital assets. This isn’t even mentioned my personal favourite – Digital Cheques!” stated Bank of England Head of Digital Currency Technology, Danny Russell.
“Built on a foundation to support innovation, the lab proves that many innovative use cases can be supported from a basic set of building blocks including smart aliases, trusted or verifiable credentials, programmability features and common standards” Russell added.
“We recognise the value of the Digital Pound Lab in producing practical insights to inform the next generation of UK retail payments infrastructure. By sharing these demonstrations, we aim to show how the capabilities built in the Lab can support a range of use cases, and how innovative payment services can be developed from a basic set of building blocks, including aliases, trusted or verifiable credentials, programmability features and common standards” said Bank of England Deputy Governor for Financial Stability, Sarah Breeden.
“UK bank innovation programmes and teams have become scared to take on some of the big breakthrough innovation challenges of late. Not so at the Bank of England Digital Pound Lab. This is a great example of breakthrough thinking made concrete, inside an institution with the power to make things happen” commented Label Sessions Managing Director, Nick Sherrard.
Caution over the benefits of CBDCs have been expressed in Norway. Norway’s central bank says it does not currently recommend the introduction of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) but may do so at a later time.
“We will be ready to introduce a central bank digital currency if it becomes necessary to maintain an efficient and secure payment system,” Norges Bank Governor Ida Wolden Bache said in a statement.