The Bank of England and FCA’s new Call for Input puts tokenised collateral at CCPs at the centre of the UK’s next phase of market modernisation.
The authorities state that tokenised assets should generally receive the same regulatory treatment as non‑tokenised assets, provided the legal rights and risks are equivalent. For clearing houses, this is a major shift: it opens the door to tokenised collateral being treated as economically interchangeable with traditional securities, and the regulators explicitly ask whether a broader range of assets could be accepted in tokenised form.
The paper also makes clear that DLT‑based and traditional settlement rails can safely co‑exist. The regulators commit to strict technology neutrality, signalling that the UK will not favour DLT over non‑DLT, nor one type of DLT over another. Instead, the focus is on ensuring interoperability and consistent regulatory outcomes, so that post‑trade infrastructures can adopt new technology without fragmenting settlement processes or creating new risks.
For post‑trade, the authorities reaffirm the importance of the singleness of central bank money, regardless of whether settlement occurs on DLT or legacy systems. This aligns with the Bank’s ongoing work on RTGS modernisation, including extended operating hours and future capabilities to support tokenised settlement models. The Bank also confirms continued industry engagement on the operational and risk‑management requirements for CCPs to accept tokenised collateral—signalling that this work is moving from exploratory to preparatory.
The Call for Input sits within the UK Government’s wider Wholesale Financial Markets Digital Strategy and runs alongside regulatory work on UCITS tokenisation, stablecoins and the Digital Securities Sandbox. Together, these initiatives form the UK’s roadmap for scaling tokenisation through 2026, with further updates expected later this year.
