The
digital
pound
consultation
is
set
to
drop
on
Thursday,
said
James
Bowler,
permanent
secretary
of
the
government’s
finance
arm,
the
Treasury,
in
a
meeting
on
Wednesday.
“The
government
is
proceeding
I
think
with
caution,”
said
Bowler,
who
holds
the
most
senior
rank
for
his
civil
service
department.
“There’s
a
number
of
issues
around
privacy,
financial
inclusion,
whether
there’s
limits,
monetary
policy
and
interest
and
the
consultation
is
out
on
that
and
you’ll
hear
more
about
it
tomorrow.”
The
digital
pound
consultation
opened
in
February
and
closed
in
June
last
year.
At
the
time,
the
Bank
of
England
and
Treasury
said
that
a
digital
pound
was
likely
needed.
Since
the
consultation
landed
it
has
received
over
50,000
responses.
Privacy
was
one
chief
concern
respondents
highlighted.
The
Treasury
Select
Committee,
a
cross
party
group
tasked
with
examining
the
Treasury’s
policy
decisions,
also
asked
for
the
government
to
lower
its
proposed
limit
for
individual
holdings,
and
for
the
digital
pound
to
be
able
to
bear
interest
last
month.
“This
is
about
being
a
modern
economy
that
recognizes
how
our
citizens
want
to
do
business
but
it
throws
up
a
number
of
challenges
that
you’d
want
to
overcome
before
you
decided
to
proceed
and
we
are
still
in
that
phase
of
looking
at
those
challenges,”
Bowler
said.