Summary
- Bank of England selected Polygon Labs, NOBO Finance, and Dun & Bradstreet to test digital money applications for trade finance.
- The consortium will develop reusable SME financial profiles combining wallet activity, commercial intelligence, risk data, and smart-contract infrastructure
- Exporters could receive stablecoin financing while UK importers settle in digital pounds, testing interoperability within cross-border trade payment systems.
The Bank of England has selected Polygon Labs, NOBO Finance, and Dun & Bradstreet for Phase 2 of its Digital Pound Lab. The partners will examine links between stablecoins, a potential digital pound, and cross-border trade finance.
According to the Bank of England announcement, the Digital Pound Lab provides an experimental environment for testing products built around digital money. Participants can explore wallets, conditional payments, refunds, authentication, privacy tools, and other payment functions.
Additionally, its smart-contract platform supports experiments connecting blockchain networks with the Lab’s centralized demonstration ledger. NOBO previously tested conditional business-to-business escrow payments during the first phase.
Phase 2 expands that work by combining payment infrastructure with commercial intelligence. The project specifically targets settlement delays and limited financing access affecting smaller businesses engaged in international trade.
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Polygon Labs Supports Two SME Trade Finance Tests
The consortium will develop two workstreams designed to address different barriers facing small and medium-sized businesses. One will create an SME Bankable Profile using wallet activity, open finance data, and commercial intelligence.
NOBO will lead the workstream alongside Dun & Bradstreet and Polygon Labs. Dun & Bradstreet will provide commercial identity and risk information for assessing participating companies. Meanwhile, Polygon Labs will supply smart-contract infrastructure for verifiable records, consent management, and financing lifecycles. The partners aim to create reusable financial identities that SMEs can present across lenders and markets.
Consequently, businesses could provide more consistent information when applying for trade financing. Fragmented records and manual verification can make credit assessments harder for smaller companies.
Stablecoins and Digital Pound Enter Same Settlement Test
The second workstream will explore invoice factoring backed by electronic bills of lading. Exporters could receive financing through stablecoins while UK importers settle payments using digital pounds.
Polygon Labs will support the stablecoin component through its Open Money Stack. Moreover, the infrastructure provides an integration layer connecting stablecoin payments with applications and financial institutions.
Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron emphasized the importance of interoperability between private stablecoins and central bank money. NOBO CEO Ayo Ojerinola also highlighted reliable business identity and risk data for improving SME financing.
Significantly, the experiment does not position a digital pound as a stablecoin replacement. Instead, it examines whether both payment systems can support a single trade transaction.
Conclusion
The Digital Pound Lab will test how business data, stablecoins, and central bank digital money can support cross-border trade. Its findings could help assess practical models for faster SME financing and settlement.
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