[heartbeats]

> Economists would surely love the anonymised spending data, were it to be made available.

They could get this from banks already.

> Retailers would presumably save by not having to pay fees to Visa, MasterCard, Stripe, etc.

These are already low in Europe due to regulation.

[redeyedtreefrog]

> They could get this from banks already.

No they can't.

> These are already low in Europe due to regulation.

For sure, it's not going to save vast amounts of money. The original comment said "I already have a digital pound in my bank account". I am merely pointing out that though it may seem entirely frictionless and free to spend online already, there are costs involved.

[heartbeats]

> No they can't.

What do you mean "can't"? My bank certainly has the information, since I can see it online if I log in. Of course they would have to change the law, but this also goes for the digital pound.