The Bank of England's Digital Pound Lab is moving into a trade-finance experiment that tests how stablecoin infrastructure and a possible digital pound could work in the same payment flow.

The narrow setup is important. The Bank describes the lab as a simulated environment for industry testing, not a regulatory sandbox, and says no real customers or real money payments are involved. Its broader purpose is to test use cases and business models that could inform whether the UK should build a digital pound.

Reporting from CoinDesk and crypto.news says the Phase 2 work involves NOBO Finance, Dun & Bradstreet and Polygon Labs. The group plans two linked workstreams: one for portable credit profiles for small and medium-sized businesses, and another for invoice factoring tied to electronic bills of lading.

In the factoring flow, an exporter would receive an advance using stablecoin technology while a UK importer would settle finally in digital pounds. Polygon Labs is described as providing smart-contract and stablecoin settlement infrastructure, while Dun & Bradstreet contributes business data and credit-assessment capabilities.

The project does not mean the Bank has decided to issue a digital pound. It does show the kind of interoperability question central banks now need to answer: whether public payment infrastructure, private stablecoin rails and business identity systems can be stitched together without forcing trade finance users onto a single stack.