Sarah Breeden (세라 브리든), deputy governor for financial stability at the Bank of England (BOE), set out a strategy to modernise Britain’s financial system with tokenisation at its core.

According to a recent report by The Block, Breeden said in a speech at the City Week 2026 conference in London that future retail payment systems should be made up of interoperable forms of money, including tokenised deposits and stablecoins.

She stressed that using distributed ledger technology could reduce intermediaries and make payments cheaper and faster. She added that smart contracts could enable customisation, setting conditions and automation, improving the efficiency of retail payments.

“We want a multi-currency system in retail payments that promotes competition and choice,” she said. “Alongside existing bank deposits, payments should also be possible with tokenised bank deposits, regulated stablecoins and potentially a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC).” The Bank of England also supports responsible adoption of AI, including AI-agent payments and commerce, she said.

The Bank of England will publish a draft of stablecoin rules in June and plans to finalise them by the end of this year. To prepare for risks from the rapid spread of stablecoins, it may temporarily cap the initial total amount issued, Breeden said. She added that it would encourage banks to innovate on tokenised deposits and, through next-generation retail infrastructure, allow tokenised deposits to be used not only for payments among customers of the same bank but also for payments between banks.