The SNP is considering plans to ditch its policy on an independent Scotland sharing the pound and replace it with a new currency pegged to sterling.

The Sunday Herald can reveal that senior SNP MPs are reviewing the party’s currency position and a report is expected to be issued to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

Creating a 'Scottish pound' would form a key plank of the SNP’s new drive for independence if it was adopted by the party leadership.

An SNP MP said: “I think we are moving on.”

Senior figures in the Yes Scotland and Better Together campaigns agree the pitch for independence in 2014 failed due to fears over the economy.

A weakness for the Yes side was the SNP Government’s plan for an independent Scotland to share both the pound and the Bank of England with the rest of the UK.

The proposal was shot down after the then Chancellor, George Osborne, and his Labour and Liberal Democrat counterparts said they would not agree to the move.

The Treasury also warned that a currency union would not be in the interests of the rest of the UK, and Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, provided a lukewarm analysis of the policy.

Uncertainty over which currency an independent Scotland would use dominated the referendum and contributed to a 10 point defeat for the Yes campaign.

The SNP manifesto for May’s Holyrood election kept open the option of a second referendum and the recent Brexit vote has fuelled calls for another plebiscite.

However, the Sunday Herald has learned that the SNP were reviewing the currency policy in an independent Scotland even before Brexit.

Senior MPs, including outgoing deputy leader Stewart Hosie and the Economy team, have appraised various alternatives and it is understood currency union is no longer the preferred option.

All options are being mulled over, but the plan attracting support is a separate currency pegged to the pound, which means an exchange rate fixed against the value of sterling.

In practice, this would also require the creation of a new central bank in Scotland or a Hong Kong-style currency board as a monetary authority.

Hosie is the most senior member of the team, but it will be up to Sturgeon to decide how to proceed.

Figures in the banking community have also been sounded out about the potentially seismic policy shift.

A senior SNP source said: “The assumption of the review is that existing policy is untenable."

The source said Hosie’s role in the group has been to “test” and “challenge” every argument put forward.

An SNP insider said the detailed work being carried out into macro-economic policy contrasts with the currency union position “handed down” by former First Minister Alex Salmond.

The development comes after former Treasury permanent secretary Sir Nicholas Macpherson said Brexit presented the pro-independence side with “an extraordinary opportunity”.

Macpherson, whose department made searing arguments against the SNP's independence policy in 2014, also floated the idea of a Scottish pound supported by a central bank, rather than a currency union.

Salmond, when asked recently about what he thought would be the best currency option for an independent Scotland, said: “She [Nicola Sturgeon] is reviewing that matter and will bring forward proposals.”

Angus Robertson, the SNP group leader at Westminster, has also suggested a rethink is possible: “There are a range of options on the table, there was a fiscal commission that the Scottish government set up before the 2014 referendum but ... things have moved on,” he said.

In 2014, Glasgow University principal Anton Muscatelli backed a currency union but gave the option of a separate currency a mark of 8 out of ten: “Many successful European countries of a similar scale have chosen this option, for example, Sweden and Denmark. Scotland would then have to choose how to manage its exchange rate.

“Given the importance of trade with the UK, shadowing the pound as Denmark does with the euro might be a good option, but this could be reassessed over time as Scotland’s industrial and economic strategy develops.”

However, while a separate currency would represent a clean break from the past, SNP insiders believe the policy is risky.

The currency union option was attractive as it meant the Bank of England would remain the lender of last resort for Scottish financial institutions.

If the policy was changed, Scottish banks would need to have confidence in a new central bank, while companies would face transaction costs when doing business south of the border.

An SNP spokesperson said: "No paper on currency has been submitted to the First Minister by the Westminster Economy Group. Any change in policy would be required ?to go through the normal party processes."