Tokenisation of UK Wholesale Capital Markets: Key Takeaways from the FCA‘s and Bank of England’s Call for Input - Mayer Brown

The Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority have jointly issued a call for input on the tokenisation of UK wholesale capital markets. The move signals a formal step toward assessing whether digital asset technology can be safely integrated into the backbone of the country’s financial infrastructure. Rather than proposing immediate rule changes, the regulators are seeking industry views on the potential benefits, risks, and operational challenges involved.

For market participants, the relevance lies in the direction of travel. Tokenisation could, in principle, improve settlement efficiency, transparency, and liquidity in wholesale markets. But it also raises unresolved questions around legal certainty, interoperability, and cybersecurity. The responses to this consultation are expected to inform future policy, and possibly the design of pilot programmes.

What to watch next is how the two regulators incorporate the feedback, whether any concrete regulatory sandbox emerges, and how this compares with similar initiatives in other major financial centres. The outcome may help determine the pace at which tokenised instruments gain acceptance in mainstream capital markets.