Central Bank Digital Currencies Requests for Information

As part of the design phase of a potential digital pound, the Bank and HM Treasury will be looking to engage with experts on a range of topics via Requests for Information. The Bank and HM Treasury have published Requests for Information (RFI) on two topics associated with the development of the digital pound in its CBDC design phase. These are offline payments and retailer needs.

Requests for Information are open to any stakeholders to respond to. All firms are asked to submit a well-considered, but brief response to the request(s) (maximum of 700 words) that outlines views on the questions posed below. The response should also explain the responding organisations’ relevant expertise and if appropriate nominate a staff member who could be called upon for further discussion of the topic. Any supplementary material submitted beyond the 700 word submission will not be reviewed at this time.

The Bank and HM Treasury expect to form time limited working groups (lasting 6 months to 1 year) to explore the topics in more detail. The submissions to the RFI will be used to select members for the working groups, comprising members with relevant knowledge and expertise to work together to produce work that can inform the Bank and HM Treasury’s work on these topics.

The Bank and HM Treasury would like the following questions to be considered:

Offline Payments

What are the use cases for offline payments and how would that influence design of the digital pound?

• What constitutes an offline payment and is it feasible to implement offline payments in CBDC?
• What risks would offline payments create and how can those be mitigated?
• How could offline payment functionality improve financial inclusion?
• What are other use cases for CBDC offline payments?
• As part of digital pound design, should offline payments functionality be developed as part of the core offering, developed as an overlay service, or not included?

Retailer Needs

What would merchants need from digital pound design?

• What are the range of factors that would influence whether merchants accept digital pound payments alongside other payment methods?
• What are the options for enabling in-store acceptance of digital pounds (eg existing POS devices, QR codes) and what are their relative advantages or disadvantages?
• What are the requirements for enabling e-commerce acceptance of digital pounds?
• What account functionality would help merchants to manage any corporate limits on digital pound holdings?
• What issues might arise from digital pounds for retailers’ day-to-day payments and cash treasury management, and how might those be addresses?
• What are the potential scenarios for retailers running their own Payment Interface Providers (PIPs) or External Service Interface Providers (ESIPs) services?