The Bank of England (BOE) garnered over 50,000 responses to its consultation on a digital pound, Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe said in a speech on Thursday.
The majority expressed concerns over privacy, programmability and the decline of cash, Cunliffe said at a conference held by the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C.
The digital pound consultation launched in February and closed in June, and the central bank has said a central bank digital currency (CBDC) will likely be needed, despite taking no formal decision yet on whether to issue.
Users of the digital pound will have access to the same level of privacy that they enjoy today when making electronic payments he said to quench concerns, adding that the BOE would not see people’s veri.
Respondents were concerned the central bank would make the digital pound programmable and constrain the its functionality –something that won’t happen, Cunliffe said. “It would be for private sector firms to develop and offer, for user consent, payment services involving greater programmability,” he said.
“Criticisms of the digital pound have ranged from concerns that it would be adopted at a scale and pace that would disintermediate the banking system and threaten financial stability, to, at the same time, concerns that there would be no use for it and it would be a ‘solution looking for a sorun,'” said Cunliffe, who is leaving his Bank of England role next week.
Bankers said in February that they worried a digital pound would cause a two-tier system between cash and digital money. The government recently legislated to ensure