Digital FMI Consortium, a group of private-sector companies, plans to examine cross-border payments and make recommendations to the Bank of England using its own sterling-backed coin, dSterling.

See related article: Next step for spot Bitcoin ETF in the US may be a courtroom battle

Fast facts

  • The consortium announced Project New Era, which will deploy real-world testing to evaluate digital currencies, including the coexistence of money, regulated crypto assets and stablecoins, as well as the U.K.’s central bank digital currencies.
  • The consortium intends to use the blueprint set out by Project New Era to launch private-sector pilots across the world.
  • The test is the second part in a two-phase project. The first phase concluded with the publication of a Green Paper in February that proposed closer public-private collaboration on central bank digital currencies.
  • The Digital FMI Consortium is founded under the coordination of Dutch financial infrastructure group, paywith.glass SIG (Special Interest Group), with Boston Consulting Group as its consulting partner and supported in the U.K. by The Payments Association.
  • In April, the U.K. government announced plans to recognize stablecoins as a valid form of payment, part of its plan to make Britain a global hub for crypto assets and investments.

See related article:  US crypto bill may not pass the Senate this year, Lummis says