Bank of England leader says ‘banks will have to adjust’ to crypto. As reported by a Friday Reuters brief, Jon Cunliffe, one of the leaders of England’s central bank said “Our job is not to protect bank business models. Banks will have to adjust,” he added. “Our job is to ensure that if bank business models change, we manage the financial and macro-economic consequences of that.”
Cunliffe posited that it is not the responsibility of the Bank of England to ensure mainstream banking businesses remain relevant. Central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, pose a threat to the solutions commercial banks provide, cutting them out as middlemen. Crypto, more broadly, presents users with the option of self-custody, which challenges banks, although banks still function as fiat currency on-ramps.
Cunlifee said “They need to go up the political agenda quite fast before the political side discovers there are developments in the private sector that actually don’t fit with policy,” implying that governments across the globe must prioritize conversations around these assets due to the changes they may bring.
[image: Bank of England]
