”UK risks falling behind US and EU without pound stablecoin”

If the UK does not regulate and foster pound-denominated stablecoins, it will be unable to keep pace with the global trend towards on-chain finance and internet-based capital markets, and the US and the European Union (EU)
According to Cointelegraph on the 13th (local time), ClearBank, a banking infrastructure and fintech company, said that it may fall behind the EU.
Mark Fairless, CEO of the UK Bank Group, said: "For the UK's financial services industry to remain globally competitive, we need a stablecoin denominated in sterling.
"We absolutely need a platform," he said at the Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal.
In an interview with Cointelegraph at the 2025 Summit,
"Stablecoins are a natural extension of reducing the friction of international payments," he said, "because the pound is not the global reserve currency, the market capitalization of pound stablecoins will likely fall below that of dollar- or euro-based tokens."
"However, as the world moves towards on-chain finance and internet-based capital markets, the UK needs to remain competitive by using a pound-denominated system," he said.
"We need a stablecoin," he said. "The GBP stablecoin is essential for the UK to process real-time international payments, and without it, other financial institutions will not be able to do the same."
"We risk falling behind the rest of the world," he said. "The UK's financial services industry is one of the strongest sectors of the national economy, and in that respect stablecoins are the natural next step."
However, he explained that it is still unclear how stablecoins will affect the banking industry and existing business models.