Sarah Breeden, CBDC Working Group Member, Appointed Bank of England Deputy Governor

Longtime Bank of England official Sarah Breeden will take on the role of deputy governor, the U.K. central bank announced Tuesday, taking over from Jon Cunliffe as his term draws to a close.

Breeden, who was on the BoE’s Central Bank Digital Currency task force, will officially take over Cunliffes role on Nov. 1, 2023, where she will sit on the financial policy, monetary policy and the prudential regulation committees and “play a key role in providing a link between financial stability and monetary policy,” the press release said.

By October Cunliffe will have spent 10 years as deputy governor, the maximum time allowed. During his time as deputy governor, he helped usher in the U.K.’s digital pound consultation, something that the central bank thinks is likely needed and announced in April that the bank was considering whether to limit stablecoin payments in new rules.

Breeden, who has been the executive director for financial stability strategy and risk and a member of the Financial Policy Committee at the BoE, is no stranger to the BoE’s CBDC work. The task force assessing central bank digital currencies was set up in 2021, to ensure a “strategic approach” by the U.K.

A decision on whether or not to issue a digital pound is not expected until at least 2025. The U.K. also closed a consultation in April on its proposed crypto rules and a markets bill passed into law that gave the BoE more powers to regulate crypto. The BoE is also expected to give more clarity on how it plans to regulate systemic stablecoins that could pose a threat to financial stability, this year.