UK government moves forward with regulatory framework on stablecoins for payments

cointelegraph.com:

The United Kingdom's Economic and Finance Ministry has said it intends to amend its existing regulatory framework to incorporate stablecoins used as a means of payment.

In a Monday announcement, HM Treasury said certain stablecoins could potentially become “a widespread means of payment” for retail customers in the United Kingdom following a consultation with various organizations, universities and individuals that was begun in January 2021. The U.K. government body said it intended to “take the necessary legislative steps” to bring stablecoins into its regulatory framework, “primarily by amending existing electronic money and payments legislation.”

The Finance Ministry said amending its regulatory framework to include stablecoins as a means of payment was just one part of a “package of measures” aimed at incorporating crypto assets and blockchain technology into the United Kingdom. The government body also announced a Cryptoasset Engagement Group “to work more closely with the industry,” exploring how the country’s tax system could encourage development in the crypto market, establishing a "financial market infrastructure sandbox" aimed at innovative firms, and introducing a nonfungible token issued by the Royal Mint in summer 2022.

“It’s my ambition to make the U.K. a global hub for crypto-asset technology, and the measures we’ve outlined today will help to ensure firms can invest, innovate and scale up in this country,” said Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer. “This is part of our plan to ensure the U.K. financial services industry is always at the forefront of technology and innovation.”

John Glen, the Economic Secretary of the Treasury, said the government will be reviewing how crypto lending might be treated in