Bank of England Targets 30-Strong Team for Digital Currency: Report

The Bank of England is looking to hire a staff of as many as 30 people to develop a central bank digital currency, the Sunday Times reported, without saying where it got the figure.

In February, the U.K.'s central bank and finance ministry said they were starting further research and development on a digital version of the pound sterling, and invited the public to weigh in on the plans. While the project has been dubbed "Britcoin" in the press, the bank is less keen on the moniker, saying no decision has been made on whether a digital pound would use distributed ledger technology.

The bank's website careers page lists positions for a digital pound security architect and digital pound solutions architect, both added toward the end of last month. Both pay as much as 80,000 British pounds ($99,000) in salary. The Treasury advertised for a head of central bank digital currency in January.

"A team of 30 seems like quite a significant resource to focus on the digital pound," said Ian Taylor, a board adviser for trade association CryptoUK, according to the newspaper. "It shows the impact it would have, and that the bank are serious about it."