Purpose and scope
The Academic Advisory Group (‘AAG’) will provide a forum to engage stakeholders from academia and gather input from a diverse range of academic fields relevant to central bank digital currency (‘CBDC’). A UK CBDC, also known as a digital pound, would be a retail CBDC for use by households and businesses for their everyday payments, issued by the Bank of England (the ‘Bank’). The Bank and His Majesty’s Treasury consider the digital pound is likely to be needed in the future, though no decision to introduce one has been taken at this stage. We are therefore stepping up development and moving to the design stage of our work.
The Bank will use the AAG to generate expert academic input and promote diverse and interdisciplinary discussions on a range of topics related to retail CBDC, and of relevance to our work during the design phase. There will be no obligation however, for the Bank to act on the output of the AAG. The AAG will not have any decision-making responsibilities, no formal advisory capacity nor will the Bank be under any obligation to formally consult the AAG. The AAG will not replace the generally applicable mechanisms for consultation and engagement that the Bank operate in fulfilment of their statutory objectives.
Chair and secretariat
The AAG will be chaired by Nick Mclaren, Head of Future of Money Division (the ‘Chair’). The Bank will provide the secretariat support for the AAG (the ‘Secretariat’).
Membership
Membership in the AAG is at the invitation of the Bank. The AAG will comprise a diverse set of knowledgeable members (‘Members’) with experience in academic fields relevant to CBDC, such as monetary economics, innovation theory and behavioural science. The list of disciplines of interest and the Members’ selection process can be found in Annex 1 of this Terms of Reference.
Membership is dependent on individuals having relevant expertise to be able to contribute to the discussions and commit their own time to the AAG. A Member must inform the Chair of any change to their professional role or employment. Membership will be periodically reviewed to ensure diversity of perspective and balance of expertise.
Where subgroups are to take place, members may invite subject-matter experts from their organisation to those subgroups, to contribute to subgroup discussions and participate in subgroup presentations, for the duration of the relevant presentation.
Responsibilities and activities
The Bank will engage the AAG on issues related to the CBDC exploratory work programme. In this respect, Members are expected to offer frank and robust inputs.
The Chair may invite Members to nominate themselves as lead discussants for certain topics. Academics and observers who are not Members (‘external participants’) may also be invited to attend specific AAG meetings if and when it is considered necessary at the discretion of the Chair. External participants must comply with this Terms of Reference.
The AAG is not a decision-making body for the CBDC exploratory work programme, but its views will inform and play a role in the Bank’s work on CBDC. The activities, discussions, and outputs of the AAG should not be taken as an indication of future policy by the Bank or considered binding for future policy work or decisions.
The list of Members shall be published. While Members can therefore publicly share and cite their AAG membership, they should not give any impression that the AAG, or any individual Member, has decision-making responsibilities in relation to the digital pound.
When speaking in public about a digital pound or wider CBDC policy, Members should be clear that their views are personal and avoid any impression that they represent the views of the AAG or the Bank.
They should also not cite their role on the AAG when participating in any external engagements or activities that are unrelated to the digital pound or wider CBDC policy.
Members of the AAG are expected to:
- attend physical and/or virtual meetings as required, unless otherwise agreed with the Chair;
- provide technical, analytical, and academic perspectives and inputs to the discussions within their research or policy area of expertise;
- act in a personal capacity and contribute to the AAG with a view to sharing perspectives that reflect their discipline as a whole, rather than representing the views or interests of their individual organisations;
- treat information disclosed or opinions expressed during AAG meetings as confidential unless and until the AAG has authorised their public release; and
- raise awareness of the Bank’s work on the design phase of the digital pound via academic networks and encourage research on CBDC.
The Chair is responsible for:
- setting the strategy for the AAG and shaping its forward agenda;
- guiding and moderating the discussions in meetings;
- inviting external participants to attend AAG meetings, where appropriate;
- obtaining Members’ agreement on any proposed outputs; and
The Secretariat will be responsible for:
- the organisation and coordination of the AAG’s activities, including timely circulation of minutes after meetings and publication of summary minutes on the Bank’s website;
- preparation of the agenda and materials for the meetings, which may incorporate input from Members; and
- co-ordinating any outreach to other stakeholders, if required.
The AAG will meet for the duration of the design phase approximately once a quarter. The Chair may need to vary the meeting frequency where circumstances demand it. The Bank will reimburse Members for basic travel and accommodation expenses.
Members can request and/or suggest specific topics to be included in meeting agendas. Any such request should be communicated to the Secretariat before the relevant meeting to which the agenda relates. The final content of any agenda will be decided by the Chair.
The Secretariat will share draft minutes of the discussions held during the meetings with Members before publication. Members may communicate any comments or edits on the content to the Secretariat within one week of receiving the draft minutes. The final content of any summary minutes will be decided by the Chair.
Reporting, confidentiality, and accountability
The Bank is committed to being transparent about their work and the work of the AAG. A summary of the minutes of discussions will be published on the Bank’s website after each meeting.
Interested parties who are not Members are welcome to send their views on topics discussed by the AAG to cbdc@bankofengland.co.uk.
Any non-public or potentially sensitive information disclosed during meetings will only be included in the minutes with the prior approval of both the speaker who made the comment and the Chair.
Any information provided or opinions expressed during AAG meetings will be treated as confidential unless and until the AAG has authorised their public release. ‘Participants’ (which means Members and external participants) may be exposed to non-public information in the course of their work in the AAG. Involvement of third parties in handling this material is strongly discouraged. Participants are expected to accept responsibility for ensuring that third parties are not able to access any information which is shared with them through AAG.
Where confidential information is used or disclosed by a Participant in the course of their participation in the AAG, they agree to:
- keep such information secret and confidential;
- not use or exploit the information in any way except for the purposes of the AAG as set out in this Terms of Reference;
- not directly or indirectly disclose or make available any such confidential information in whole or in part to any person, except as expressly permitted in writing by the Bank or in accordance with this Terms of Reference; and
- not to copy, reduce to writing or otherwise record confidential information except as strictly necessary for the purposes of the AAG as set out in this Terms of Reference.
Participants agree to establish and maintain adequate security measures to safeguard confidential information from unauthorised access or use.
Participants may disclose confidential information to the minimum extent required by an order of any court of competent jurisdiction or any regulatory, judicial, governmental or similar body or any taxation authority of competent jurisdiction; or the laws or regulations of any country to which they are subject. Before such disclosure, Participants agree to use all reasonable endeavours to give the Chair as much notice of this disclosure as possible (and if they are not able to inform the Chair of the full circumstances of the disclosure and the information that has been disclosed they should notify the Chair as soon as reasonably practicable after such disclosure has been made).
Participants agree to destroy or return to the Bank or (where applicable) the relevant disclosing party all documents and materials (and any copies) containing, reflecting, incorporating or based on confidential information, and to erase the information from their computer and communications systems and devices, except to the extent that such Participant is required by applicable law, to retain the information.
These confidentiality provisions shall survive the termination of this Terms of Reference.
Intellectual Property
The Bank shall not acquire any right, title, or interest in or to Participant’s pre-existing Intellectual Property Rights (‘IPR’). It is the responsibility of the relevant Participant to draw attention to IPRs subsisting in information shared within the AAG.
The Participants shall not acquire any right, title, or interest in or to the Bank’s pre-existing IPRs.
The Participants shall have no right to use the Bank's names, logos or trademarks, without the Bank’s prior written consent.
The Participants acknowledge and agree that newly created IPRs in the outputs (i.e. minutes, summaries, agenda, presentations) of the AAG shall be owned by the Bank.
The Participants grant the Bank a perpetual, irrevocable, non-attributable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide and sub-licensable licence, to use (including but not limited to the right to load, execute, store, transmit, display and copy) IPRs contained:
- in any new products (e.g. papers, presentations) created by the Participants for the AAG, and
- any pre-existing IPR in the product which is necessary for the Bank to enjoy the use of the product in the furthering the Bank’s work on a UK CBDC.
The Bank grants to the Participant a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free, non-transferable licence to use outputs of the AAG for internal use within the Participant’s organisation for non-commercial purposes.
Should the Bank wish to further develop particular ideas or outputs from the AAG, they are required to comply with public procurement law and shall not be fettered in their discretion to seek and enter into appropriate commercial agreements accordingly.
Relationship to the wider CBDC work programme and other engagement groups
Views from the AAG will be fed into the Bank’s wider work programme on CBDC. The Chair will be responsible for representing the AAG’s views inside the Bank, including sharing them with relevant decision-making bodies.
The issues raised by the AAG may inform the topics considered by other engagement groups (for example, the CBDC Engagement Forum), and vice versa. The minutes of other engagement groups will be made available to Members via the Bank’s website.
Conflicts of interest, competition law and information-sharing
Participants are responsible for identifying any financial or other interests that could create or be seen to create a conflict of interest as a Participant of the AAG, as soon as they arise. This includes reviewing the forward agenda and identifying and declaring any conflicts of interest to the Secretariat before every meeting. If a Participant finds that a conflict of interest becomes apparent only as the meeting progresses, the nature of the conflict should be declared as soon as practicable to the Chair. The Chair will then decide how the conflict should be managed, including whether the Participant should:
- leave the meeting during discussions relating to the conflicted matter;
- stay in the meeting but not participate in the discussion; or
- stay in the meeting and participate freely.
It is the responsibility of each Participant to ensure that they understand and comply with their obligations under all applicable competition law. To the extent that any Participant is unclear about these, they should seek legal advice and if appropriate arrange to undertake competition law compliance training or seek further guidance at their respective organisations.
Participants may request further protections for any data and information shared with the AAG. Participants may make requests either by communicating the request (i) directly to the Bank or (ii) to the Members and Chair for discussion at the next AAG meeting.
It is the responsibility of each Participant to ensure that they are satisfied with the level of protection for any information shared by them. If they are not satisfied, then it is the Participant’s responsibility to not share any such information.
Disclaimer
Neither the Bank, nor any of their staff, officials, or representatives, including but not limited to the AAG Chair and Secretariat, are responsible for any views or statements expressed by other Participants.
Views expressed by the AAG in its outputs may not reflect the views of the Bank.
The activities, discussions, and outputs of the AAG should not be taken as an indication of future policy by the Bank. The Bank policy positions will continue to be developed and communicated in accordance with the usual governance and public consultation procedures of the organisation.
Data protection
The Bank collect the name, work email address, job title, name of organisation, and summary of role and experience, from individuals who submit an application for membership of the AAG. The Bank may also collect some of this information from individuals or organisations who nominate an individual for membership of the AAG.
The Bank will also collect views, opinions and further personal data where this is shared either verbally or in writing (e.g. by using a ‘chat’ function) by individuals participating in online meetings for the AAG.
The Bank is likely to be ‘controller’ (within the meaning of data protection law) in respect of the personal data they process for the selection of Members and the running of meetings for the AAG. In other respects the Bank is likely to be a ‘controller’ with respect to their own processing of personal data in connection with the AAG.
The Bank also consider that each Member is likely to be a ‘controller’ in respect of their own processing of personal data for the purposes of their participation in the AAG.
Where the Bank a processes personal data for the purposes of the AAG, they will use the information for the purpose of reviewing and assessing applications to become a Member of the AAG, to communicate with Members and to advance the purposes of the AAG as set out more fully in these Terms of Reference. This includes contacting unsuccessful applicants when subsequent membership opportunities arise.
The Bank will process personal data where necessary for the performance of their tasks carried out in the public interest being the establishment of a forum to facilitate dialogue around the potential adoption of a CBDC in the UK. They may share your personal data with other Members where necessary for this purpose.
To ensure that the Bank’s external engagement on CBDC is transparent, the names and professional affiliations of Members may be published on the Bank’s website.
Safeguarding individuals’ personal data is important to the Bank. Members’ personal data will be stored on secure Bank systems with controlled access. The Bank are committed to information security, and each uses a range of layered information security measures to protect the data they hold. They will keep Members’ personal data for so long as is necessary to facilitate the AAG or otherwise in accordance with the Bank’s applicable document retention policies, which are available upon request from the Bank. You can request that we no longer use your personal data by writing to the Bank as applicable.
Further information about how the Bank processes personal data is set out in the Bank’s Privacy Notice.
Where the Bank uses an online meeting service provider to host meetings, then the privacy statement of that service provider will apply.
You have a number of rights under data protection laws. To contact the Bank about those rights, including making a request for the personal data the Bank holds about you, please see the Bank’s Privacy Notice above. You can also report concerns to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the regulatory authority for data protection in the UK. Contact details can be found on their website.
The Bank’s Data Protection Officer can be contacted via the details above.
Annex 1: Membership selection process and criteria
Selection process
The Bank may occasionally place a call for interest for new Members to join the AAG. We are currently not seeking applications for membership.
Applicants were asked to demonstrate how their research relates to the Bank’s and work on CBDC and provide evidence of fostering diversity and challenging the status quo in their workplace or with their research.
As a guide, the Bank considered the selection criteria set out below in evaluating applications, selecting Members to form the AAG. In addition to these criteria, the Bank considered the overall balance of the group in terms of diversity in area of expertise and individual characteristics.
- Knowledge and experience. Members should be knowledgeable and experienced in academic fields relevant to CBDC, including but not limited to: monetary policy, finance, competition economics, industrial organization, behavioural science, law, innovation theory, marketing, business. The Bank considered accepting applicants from any field where the applicant is able to demonstrate the relevance of their research to the design phase of the digital pound.
- Understanding of policy perspective. It is preferable if the Member can demonstrate understanding of policy issues related to the potential role of a retail CBDC in the UK economy.
- Resources. It is important that the Member is able to commit sufficient time and resources to the AAG. The required commitment will include attending quarterly workshops, and preparatory work. Members will also need to provide input into meeting and workshop agendas and papers.
- Diversity. They should contribute to the overall diversity of Members and the institutions they come from. The AAG will reflect diversity in terms of individuals, field of research and the organisations that they work for, so that the AAG may draw on a rich variety of knowledge and experiences amongst its Members. On an individual level, the AAG will incorporate Members of different characteristics in terms of gender and ethnicity. On an organisational level, a variety of organisations based on size, type, geography etc. may be selected. In addition, we will only accept a maximum of two Members from the same field of research.