UK Urges Tokenization Transformation

UK Finance is urging the British government to encourage the tokenization of securities. It was stated that the market is currently tiny, but the future stakes are high.

UK Finance stated in a report co-authored with the consulting firm Oliver Wyman that the benefits of tokenization, such as lower costs, lower risk, and broader access, are not “nice-to-haves.”

Tokenization “can transform the financial system, and the United Kingdom should be at the forefront of this transformation,” the report stated.

UK Finance chair and former Bank of England court member Bob Wigley wrote in a Financial Times editorial timed to coincide with the report’s release:

“The UK is at risk of falling behind other financial centres, as digital bond issuance to date has been in other places such as Singapore or Switzerland. […] Our progress is similar to the US, which could quickly leap ahead given its huge financial resources, deep capital markets and technology knowhow.”

“The UK government has signaled its commitment to tokenization and its enablers. The industry now requires government action,” the statement added.

It cited Singapore’s Project Guardian as an example of a government collaborating with the private sector to develop tokenized assets.

According to the report, the United Kingdom already has a growing legal foundation that is “fit for purpose” for the tokenization of securities, albeit with room for improvement.

UK Finance proposed a strategy for positioning the United Kingdom as a global tokenization market leader.

The five-year horizon of the detailed plan included three components: innovation, interoperability, and global standards leadership.

The launch of financial market infrastructure sandboxes by the Treasury this year was crucial to the plan.

According to research cited in the report, only 1% of the $20.6 trillion in global long-term fixed-income instruments will be tokenized in 2021.