Steps towards the establishment of a new Scottish currency following a vote for Scottish Independence - updated November 22nd, 2021

Mid January 2026

Starter packs of Scottish Currency go on sale.

Saturday 31st January / Sunday 1st February, 2026

Sterling account balances sold to the Scottish Reserve Bank. Replacement Scottish currency deposited to new accounts. Vending machines converted. Cash machines converted.

Monday 2nd February, 2026 - Currency Day 

New currency on public sale. New debit and credit cards go live.

Monday 9th March, 2026

• Peg to sterling ends.
• ForEx trading starts.
• Bank charges apply to transactions.

December 31st, 2026

• Scottish currency stands at £1.12, but more or less unchanged against the Dollar and Euro.
• Pensioner Guarantee in operation.
• Scottish Reserve Bank has £50 billion Foreign Reserves, now converted in a balance mix of Euros, Dollars, Yen, etc.

The planning assumptions being used for the specifications / design of the Scottish Reserve Bank

1. Indy-Scotland will seek to join the EFTA & EEA as we can see no downsides of substance. Scotland is very pro-EU, especially among younger people, but any EU accession process would run over many years.
2. The support of the EU would be largely be available where needed within an agreed Scotland/EU relationship (all EFTA countries have a unique bi-lateral arrangement with the EU in addition to shared EFTA (and EEA) arrangements.
3. We foresee changes to the EU and it’s intuitions up to and including treaty changes in the next years, due to post-pandemic issues. Participation in these processes and discussions would put additional strain on a Scottish government still trying to establish and consolidate its own functions. The operational bandwidth this would consume would not be compensated for by a decision making power. It is, however, possible political prestige or public pressure could override logic here.
4. If a decision were taken to join the EU accession process, probably by referendum in the year after Independence Day, it would not fundamentally change the 5-year horizon planning and any adjustments to the SRB design would be compensated for by the additional support available from the EU.
5. Scotland formally could say it is considering EU accession in the longer term as part of the bi-lateral arrangement (a - above), and look at asking for some parachute clauses. It is likely England will eventually face reality and end up in the EFTA and EEA (or something the same with another name), but obviously much later than Scotland. The conditions of EFTA membership are set by the members (basically so that a new member would not impact the stability, fair competition or vested interests of the existing members). But a new member is in by consensus, officially no veto, but it is hard to imagine they would admit a new member if they did not all agree. If it becomes an EU member state, Scotland would have a absolute veto on England joining the EU – which no doubt has appeal to many – but again Scotland would be in the EU first.
6. Indy-Scotland/SRB will join the IMF, Bank of International Settlements and OECD (among others), as this provides access to systems, support, expertise and information that will be vital at an early stage, and will underpin and enhance our credibility.
7. We will be planning on joining the ECB T2S/TIPS payment network. This now supports non-€ currencies such as the Danish Kroner so, easy to add the S£. This requires EEA/EFTA membership. We will also join the SWIFT international network, currently used by all commercial and central banks.
8. The SRB/National Competent Authorities (various regulators or NCAs) will be cost conscious in its setup and operation, both to avoid political criticism and to keep the setup costs initially born by the public purse justifiable.
9. Outsourced support services to local providers (or UK/EU if not feasible locally).
10. Functions that do not require a civil servant will be fully outsourced (catering, cleaning, building maintenance, etc).
11. Other functions which can be managed by a civil servant, but staffed by an external provider will be used where appropriate (physical security, publications/printing, logistics, etc).
12. Specific end-user IT services where it is advantageous to outsource, e.g. PC’s, laptops, peripherals and associated support.
13. IT support contracts and framework agreements with external providers where it is advantageous e.g. data centres, cloud services, consultancy/specialist resourcing, Internet/Intranet, network providers, etc.
14. As a principle, available solutions already offered within the central banking or banking world will be used where possible and where logical to reduce implementation times, and to allow scarce resources to focus on the areas where this is not possible or logical.
15. The people establishing the functions will have sufficient expertise and knowledge to be able to define the business processes, interfaces, system specifications and detailed functionalities of the function and its relationship to the other organisational functions. (See also Assumption 2 above for assistance from other bodies).
16. Currently planning for about 350 staff at the SRB at year 2. That is actual Indy Day and launch of the S£. That will rise gradually to a final tally of about 800 staff at Year 5 (around 3 years after Independence Day). Not including the separate finance sector (non-bank) regulation office (generically called NCAs).