UK Finance Launches First Live Pilot of Tokenised Sterling Deposits

UK Finance has unveiled a live industry pilot that will test tokenised sterling deposits (GBTD) in real-world transactions, marking a major step in the UK’s push toward digital money innovation.

Tokenised deposits act as a digital representation of commercial bank money, retaining the trust and regulatory safeguards of traditional sterling while introducing faster settlement, stronger fraud protection, and programmable payment features.

Three key use cases

The pilot, which builds on earlier work from the UK Regulated Liability Network (RLN), will trial tokenised deposits in three areas:

• Peer-to-peer marketplace payments, aimed at cutting fraud and boosting buyer–seller confidence.
• Remortgaging processes, where tokenisation can speed up transactions and improve transparency while reducing conveyancing fraud.
• Digital asset settlement, enabling seamless exchange between tokenised money and tokenised assets.

Industry-wide collaboration

The program will run until mid-2026, with the goal of demonstrating customer, business, and economic benefits. Participating banks include Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest, Nationwide, and Santander, supported by Quant, EY, and Linklaters.

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Part of a broader strategy

UK Finance described the pilot as central to efforts to modernize the UK payments landscape, complementing initiatives such as a digital gilt (DIGIT) and the National Payments Vision (NPV). The platform has been designed to be interoperable across digital money formats and payment systems, offering tokenisation-as-a-service so that firms without in-house infrastructure can still participate.

If successful, the project could cement the UK’s role as a leader in tokenised finance while laying the groundwork for broader adoption of programmable money in everyday commerce.

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