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(Bloomberg) -- The Bank of England wants British banks to find faster ways to make day-to-day digital payments with pounds, as it tries to keep a grip on money in an increasingly cashless world and keep up with progress in other nations.

Innovations that allow people to pay businesses directly from bank accounts instead of through credit and debit cards would save consumers and retailers time and money, according to a paper published Tuesday by the BOE. 

It pointed in some places like Sweden and Brazil people can use a phone number or QR code to send cash through “interbank payment systems” that work alongside cards for retail transfers.

The BOE is now asking UK banks to join the effort, which it says is needed to maintain some public control over how money is used as households ditch cash in favor of card or mobile payments. The BOE is designing a Central Bank Digital Currency, or CBDC, dubbed “Britcoin,” and is expected a decision from the government and Parliament sometime around 2026 on whether to green light the digital pound. Yet at the moment most UK retail payments rely on private money that moves through commercial banks.

“We need to see greater innovation by banks, including in the UK’s interbank payment rails, to keep pace with the international and technological frontier,” Sarah Breeden, BOE’s deputy governor for financial stability, wrote in a column published in the Financial Times. “Banks shouldn’t leave a CBDC as potentially the only game in an increasingly digitalized town.”

UK households can already make account-to-account transfers online and through mobiles. They have access to automated transfers for bills or receiving salaries as an alternative to credit and debit cards. But there’s increasing demand for direct payments, together with faster progress in other countries and the risk of a confidence loss means there’s room to take these innovations further, the BOE said. 

Innovation is just one of the policy outcomes for retail payments outlined in the report. The BOE wants to maintain households’ trust in the one-for-one exchange between central bank and private money. It also targets to build resilience across the payments chain and ensure the right governance models, including protection against fraud. The bank said it will work with the Treasury and Financial Conduct Authority and the Payment Systems Regulator toward these goals.

“The Bank of England is tasked with preserving trust and confidence in the value of money,” said BOE Governor Andrew Bailey. “Doing so requires adapting to changing landscapes for both: the technologies which enable the exchange of money; and how money is used in an increasingly digital financial system.”

The UK Treasury is set to publish a National Payments Vision setting out the government’s plans for the UK payments landscape later this year.