Bank of England Conference: ‘Central Banking in the Era of Digital Money’

29 May 2026

This event continued a long-standing tradition of partnership between the Centre for Commercial Law Studies (CCLS) and the Bank of England, a relationship fostered by Professor Rosa Lastra and Dr Daniele D'Alvia. The conference brought together central bankers, legal practitioners, and academics to examine the legal and regulatory challenges posed by the digitalisation of money and payment systems.

The first panel, "CBDCs, Stablecoins and the Future of Monetary Sovereignty," chaired by Professor Rosa Lastra, examined how central banks can preserve monetary sovereignty and financial stability as private digital money scales. Panellists included James Webbe (Bank of England), Panos Papapaschalis (ECB), and Dr Daniele D'Alvia (CCLS).

The second panel, "Payment Innovation, Tokenised Money, and the Resilience of Payment Infrastructures," chaired by Jak Yogeswaran (Bank of England), examined how central banks can support payment and settlement innovation while maintaining resilient and interoperable infrastructures. Panellists included Harry Sharpe (Bank of England), Professor Douglas Arner (CCLS), and Simon Gleeson (Consultant to Clifford Chance and Visiting Professor, University of Oxford).

Welcoming remarks were delivered by Rob Price, Joint Acting General Counsel of the Bank of England, with closing remarks provided by David Geen, Senior Technical Advisor at the Bank of England.

By Sergio Turano and José Enrique Cordero Sánchez, Banking and Finance LLM Course Reps.

More information:

• Learn more about the Banking and Finance Law LLM at Queen Mary.
• Professor Rosa Lastra is Chair and Deputy Director of Queen Mary's Institute of Banking and Finance Law.