Building block 15 calls for harmonised API data protocols and the Bank will support this objective in its development of an API layer. The Bank is also involved in the more exploratory building blocks in Focus Area E. In the light of the continued decline in cash for transactional purposes, and great technological advancement, many central banks, including the Bank of England, are considering whether introducing a CBDC would be appropriate. In March this year, the Bank published a discussion paper10 to explore the benefits, risks and practicalities of a retail CBDC in the UK. We have received valuable feedback from across the payments industry, technology providers, academics and public authorities and we look forward to setting out more information in due course. The Bank’s Financial Policy Committee also set out regulatory expectations for payment stablecoins in 2019 and 2020, which is feeding into our work on designing appropriate regulation and requirements for firms proposing these. As set out in the building blocks it is important that as these issues are debated it is also done with an eye to how they could support cross-border payments. These examples provide just a taste of the areas that the Bank of England is involved in and we will be working closely with other central banks and relevant organisations to address the building blocks as a whole.
I was delighted to be asked to chair the CPMI Task Force on Cross-Border Payments which led the Stage 2 work. To help to find solutions to this long-standing problem our assessment involved reviewing previous work undertaken, industry outreach and new analysis to get beneath the skin of what is really happening. It culminated in a 2 3  https://databank.worldbank.org/reports.aspx?source=2&series=BX.TRF.PWKR.DT.GD.ZS&country= See Annex 1 & https://www.fsb.org/2020/04/enhancing-cross-border-payments-stage-1-report-to-the-g20/ 3  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/speeches and @BoE_PressOffice  3  CPMI report published in July 2020, outlining a set of 19 ‘building blocks’ necessary to enhance cross-border payments.4  Stage 3, just published by the FSB, is a roadmap setting out a high level plan on how to take forward the building blocks. I will say more about the roadmap later, but first I want to say more about the ingredients for success – the building blocks. An overview of the building blocks and focus areas  The building blocks took a broad view: rather than addressing an individual area such as payment systems or compliance or regulation, Stage 2 sought to bring together these issues allowing us to really start to address the challenge in a holistic way. The 19 building blocks were grouped into five focus areas, which I will highlight now.5  The building blocks in Focus Area A create a commitment to a joint public and private sector vision to enhance cross-border payments by agreeing a common set of objectives.