On May 18, 2026, the Bank of England (BoE) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) launched a joint consultation to build a unified regulatory framework for tokenized wholesale financial markets. The initiatives signal a major shift toward embracing distributed ledger technology (DLT) for institutional issuance, trading, and post-trade settlement.
Regulators are seeking industry feedback until July 3 to identify rules that support or constrain tokenization. The immediate focus covers tokenized securities like bonds, equities, and fund shares.
Simon Walls, executive director of markets at the FCA, noted that tokenization has the potential to reshape market structures, lower costs, and reduce risks. To ease adoption, the FCA confirmed that blockchain records can now serve as a firm’s primary books, eliminating redundant off-chain duplicates. Furthermore, regulators are allowing stablecoins for interim unit deal settlements ahead of the UK’s comprehensive crypto framework arriving in October 2027.
To match the speed of round-the-clock blockchain rails, the BoE unveiled a phased timeline to expand its high-value CHAPS and RTGS settlement systems toward continuous operations:
- September 2027: Weekday operations will start at 1:30 a.m. to overlap with Asian trading windows.
- 2029 (Earliest): Introduction of Sunday and bank holiday settlement blocks.
- 2031 (Earliest): Final expansion to a near-continuous 22-hour daily window (22×6).
The BoE is accepting responses on the settlement hour extensions through August 10, driving the UK toward a production-ready, synchronized digital financial ecosystem.
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