The FCA and Bank of England (BoE) jointly published a Feedback Statement on tokenisation in wholesale financial markets on 14 September 2026. It sets out their response the previous consultation, with next steps to support the development and adoption of tokenised markets in the UK. The FCA also published a Call for Input on tokenised gold, exploring its potential use in UK wholesale markets.
The authorities will develop a Tokenisation Roadmap, bringing together work across regulation, collateral, settlement and market infrastructure, with further detail including timelines to follow.
The FCA’s Call for Input explores the opportunities and risks of tokenised gold, including its potential use as collateral, and whether changes to the regulatory framework could support its development, and closes on 23 October 2026.
In this article
What does this mean?
Tokenisation in wholesale financial markets
Firms responded broadly supportively to the authorities' earlier Call for Input, with 123 responses. They called for faster progress, clear timelines and a shift from pilots to permanent, scalable infrastructure. The regulatory response addresses these themes across collateral, settlement, prudential treatment and custody.
Collateral, prudential treatment and market development
The FCA and BoE consider improving collateral mobility likely to be the main short-to-medium-term benefit of wholesale tokenisation. They will progress work on tokenised collateral, including considering the eligibility of tokenised assets such as stablecoins as collateral in the BoE’s Sterling Monetary Framework operations, including the Digital Gilt Instrument (DIGIT). The BoE will also consult later this year on the acceptance of tokenised collateral by central counterparties.
The authorities’ ambition is for tokenised assets to receive the same prudential and collateral treatment as non-tokenised assets where risks are comparable and sufficiently mitigated. Firms should continue to apply the existing prudential framework while further clarity is developed. The authorities will also continue work on primary issuance alongside secondary markets and repo, considering tokenised primary issuance important to longer-term scalability.
Market infrastructure and settlement
The Tokenisation Roadmap will include dates and detail for each workstream and key dependencies. The FCA and BoE remain committed to a clear pathway for firms in the Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS) to progress to permanent authorisation. They will consider with HM Treasury whether to extend or further modify the DSS or make changes to the wider Central Securities Depositories Regulation (CSDR) framework.
Stablecoins can be used as settlement assets in the DSS, subject to conditions and HM Treasury amendments to regulations. The BoE is also developing a synchronisation service to enable tokenised asset transactions to settle in central bank money and is consulting on extending Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) and Clearing House Automated Payment System (CHAPS) settlement hours to near 24/7. Further issues around settlement finality and legal certainty will also be addressed in the Roadmap.
Regulatory framework and custody
The FCA and BoE remain committed to their existing regulatory principles. Regulated activities must have an identifiable person responsible for them, and the FCA does not see a case for changing the regulatory perimeter. Firms can use decentralised finance (DeFi) and other third-party technology, but regulated activities should continue to be delivered by regulated firms, which remain responsible for regulatory outcomes including operational resilience and know-your-customer (KYC) requirements.
The FCA will consult on safeguarding rules for relevant specified investment cryptoassets (RSICs) in the first half of 2027. Until then, firms will be assessed under the FCA’s existing CASS 6 custody rules.
Tokenised gold
The FCA is exploring whether tokenisation could make gold easier to mobilise as wholesale collateral. Subject to legal certainty and appropriate risk controls, tokenised gold could allow institutions to use previously under-utilised gold holdings as collateral in securities lending, repo and derivatives transactions. Potential benefits include intraday collateral mobility, faster settlement, capital efficiency and reduced reconciliation risk. The Call for Input focuses on tokens conferring ownership rights in underlying physical gold, with transparent backing, clearly defined ownership rights and reliable redemption arrangements.
Potential regulatory treatment
The FCA is considering responses including guidance, an ‘eligible gold token’ classification, targeted rule or legislative changes, or a bespoke regime for tokenised gold or tokenised commodities. These are not firm proposals.
It is also considering whether the collective investment scheme (CIS) and alternative investment fund (AIF) perimeter could constrain adoption. Potential options include clarifying the existing perimeter or, with HM Treasury, introducing a targeted exemption for certain tokenised gold products or market infrastructure.
What do firms need to do?
Identify where regulatory developments strengthen the case for tokenisation.
Assess how tokenised assets could change your collateral and settlement models.
Decide which capabilities to build, buy or access through partners.
Firms should use the emerging regulatory clarity to make deliberate choices about where they intend to participate in tokenised markets. This means prioritising products and markets where digital infrastructure can materially improve liquidity, collateral mobility, settlement or operating economics, with a credible path to scale. Collateral is an immediate area to assess, particularly as the authorities progress the treatment of tokenised assets and explore stablecoins and tokenised gold as collateral.
Firms should also determine how they will operate across multiple forms of money and infrastructure. Tokenised deposits, stablecoins and central bank money are likely to coexist, while traditional and tokenised markets will operate in parallel. Settlement models should therefore reflect the use case and risk profile, with interoperability built into the operating model rather than addressed later as a technology issue.
Finally, firms should decide which capabilities they need to own and where they can rely on financial market infrastructures (FMIs), custodians and technology providers. This includes custody, settlement, collateral management and distributed ledger technology (DLT) capabilities. As regulatory barriers are addressed, the strategic question is increasingly where firms want to compete and what they need to build to do so, rather than whether to experiment with tokenisation.
“We know the technology works. What matters now is whether tokenised assets can be used in the same way as their traditional equivalents, including as collateral. That is what will determine whether this moves beyond individual use cases.”
Laura Talvitie
Senior Manager, PwC
Next steps
The FCA and BoE will publish the Tokenisation Roadmap later this year, including timelines for individual workstreams. The FCA will consult on RSIC custody in the first half of 2027. The BoE will also consult on a supervisory statement and discussion paper later in 2026 on the acceptance of tokenised collateral by Central Counterparties.
The tokenised gold Call for Input closes on 23 October 2026.
Contacts
James Moseley
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