The Bank of England has teamed up with central banks from Canada, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, and the European Union to assess the potential benefits of launching a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

According to a Bank of England press release, the group will assess potential use cases for CBDCs, including economic, functional, and technical design choices as well as cross-border interoperability.

The group will be chaired by Benoît Cœuré, Head of the BIS Innovation Hub, and Jon Cunliffe, Deputy Governor of the Bank of England and Chair of the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures.

Cœuré has been a key proponent of the fintech industry and digital assets over the past year after he set up the BIS Innovation Hub in June.

The remarkable news comes months after a similar idea was discussed by the European Central Bank (ECB), which is considering launching a CBDC as a payment solution.

While everyone's focused on Davos, the Bank of England has just announced it will work with Bank of Japan, ECB, Bank of International Settlement on others looking at potential for a central bank digital currency https://t.co/RqaixiAqPE via @YahooFinanceUK #crypto #bitcoin — Oscar Williams-Grut (@OscarWGrut) January 21, 2020

The fact that institutions that have arguably been threatened by digital assets in the past are even considering such a bold move reinforces the coordinated softening of views towards the cryptocurrency industry.

Last year, the likes of Facebook and JP Morgan both presented ideas regarding the potential launch of digital assets, with the series of announcements seemingly spurring interest in existing cryptocurrencies as Bitcoin rallied from $3,150 to $14,000 in just six months.

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