The UK must regulate and encourage the development of British pound stablecoins to keep the country’s financial services sector globally competitive, according to Mark Fairless, chief executive of banking infrastructure and fintech group ClearBank.
“Stablecoins are a logical extension to reduce friction in international global payments,” he told Fairless Cointelegraph in an interview at Web Summit 2025 in Lisbon, Portugal.
He said stablecoin pounds would never match the market capitalization of dollar or euro-denominated tokens because it is not the world’s reserve currency.
However, the UK needs a British pound stablecoin to remain commercially competitive as the world shifts to onchain finance and online capital markets, Fairless said. He told Cointelegraph:
“For the UK, the ability to settle international payments in real time requires a stable GBP coin and if we don’t have it, we risk falling behind other financial sectors.
“The UK financial services market is one of our strongest parts of the economy, so stablecoins are a logical place to go next,” he said, adding that the impact of stablecoins on the banking sector and time-honored business models remains to be seen.
Stablecoins have taken on geostrategic importance as governments respond to growing pressure to put their fiat currencies on-chain to remain competitive with countries that are integrating digital rails and blockchain into their economies.
Related: The Bank of England’s Breeden warns that watered-down stablecoin rules threaten stability
Bank of England promises to keep pace with US on stablecoins
Sarah Breeden, deputy governor of the Bank of England, Britain’s central bank, said the country would keep pace with US stablecoin regulations and work closely with international partners to synchronize regulatory efforts.
Breeden also urged a cautious approach and cautioned against relaxing stablecoin regulations to the point where the asset class poses systemic risks to the banking sector.
The Bank of England has published a consultation paper on Monday outlining the proposed regulatory framework for stablecoins in the UK.
The proposal included potential reserve requirements, asset taxonomy and risk management regulations for stablecoin issuers and is open to industry feedback until February 2026, with final regulations expected in the second half of the year.
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