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Bank of England ready to water down ‘overly conservative’ stablecoin proposals: FT

Restrictions proposed by the BOE prompted criticism from the crypto industry, which said they risked preventing the U.K. from being competitive in the digital economy.

By Jamie Crawley|Edited by Sheldon Reback

May 14, 2026, 11:53 a.m. 2 min read

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What to know:

• The Bank of England is prepared to loosen restrictions on stablecoin holdings following pressure from the digital asset industry.
• The industry said the BOE’s proposed restrictions risked preventing the U.K. from being competitive in the digital economy.
• The central bank is also ready to lower its planned requirement of at least 40% of stablecoin-backing assets to be deposited with the central bank, earning no interest.

The BOE is “looking very hard at whether there are different ways we can manage what we think is an important risk as stablecoins come into play,” Breeden said in an interview.

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies pegged to the value of a traditional financial asset, usually a fiat currency, mostly the U.S. dollar. They have been at the forefront of the development of mainstream digital asset adoption, helped by the establishment of formal regulatory regimes in some major jurisdictions.

The BOE’s proposed restrictions risked preventing the U.K. from being competitive in the digital economy, crypto industry participants have said.

For its part, the central bank had described the proposed cap as “temporary.”