On 14 September 2026, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Bank of England (BoE) published a Feedback Statement (FS26/1) summarising responses to their May 2026 Call for Input on the future of tokenisation in UK wholesale financial markets.
Background
The FCA and BoE explain that FS26/1 sits within a broader policy agenda that includes HM Treasury’s Wholesale Financial Markets Digital Strategy and the work of the Wholesale Digital Markets Champion. This engagement with industry, including feedback received to the Call for Input, will inform a Tokenisation Roadmap (the Roadmap) for work on the digitalisation of wholesale markets.
Summary
The FCA and BoE received 123 responses from financial institutions, infrastructure providers, industry bodies, academics and other stakeholders. Respondents broadly supported the authorities’ vision and agreed that tokenisation presents a major opportunity for UK wholesale markets. There was widespread recognition that successful implementation will require close cooperation between industry, regulators and government.
In particular, FS26/1 highlighted the following feedback and regulatory response:
- Benefits of tokenisation: The FCA and BoE set out that they agree the main near-term benefit of tokenisation as improving collateral mobility and are advancing work on tokenised collateral, including considering tokenised assets such as stablecoins for use in BoE operations and consulting on central counterparty (CCP) acceptance of tokenised collateral. Longer term, tokenisation could support innovation through programmable instruments, tokenised funds, enhanced financing solutions and cross-border activity. The authorities remain technology-neutral, applying a “same risk, same regulatory outcome” approach, and expect a prolonged period of co-existence between tokenised and traditional markets. They support prioritising UK strengths in wholesale markets while continuing work on tokenised primary issuance, tokenised gold, dematerialisation and fractional shares.
- Regulatory principles: The FCA and BoE also confirm that they remain committed to an approach where tokenisation and DeFi will be regulated according to existing principles, with responsibility for regulated activities remaining with identifiable regulated firms rather than software providers. Firms may use third-party technology, but must remain accountable for outcomes such as operational resilience and know-your customer compliance. The authorities expect the critical third parties regime to continue applying in tokenised markets. They also stress that investors must retain recourse if assets are lost or stolen and highlight risks arising from decentralised infrastructure, including bridges, governance mechanisms, oracle providers and wallet security. Further work will examine digital twins and synthetic tokens in collaboration with industry.
- Priority areas: The FCA and BoE will publish a Roadmap setting out timelines, workstreams and key dependencies, while recognising that progress is partly dependent on legislation and international developments. They support scaling tokenised markets through the Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS), which already permits live activity, and are committed to creating a pathway from sandbox participation to permanent authorisation. The authorities will consider extending or adapting the DSS and wider regulatory frameworks based on lessons learned. They are also advancing supporting infrastructure, including tokenised gilt issuance (DIGIT), synchronisation services for settlement in central bank money, and potential near-24/7 RTGS and CHAPS operations, while emphasising that industry collaboration is essential for widespread adoption.
- Prudential and Collateral treatment: The FCA and BoE committed to giving industry clarity on the prudential and collateral treatment of tokenised assets, in particular their ambition that these would be treated the same as non-tokenised assets, as long as the risks that they pose are comparable and sufficiently mitigated under the framework. In some cases, the authorities have already confirmed timelines on this work, for instance the supervisory statement and discussion paper on CCP collateral will be published later this year. In other cases, they will provide timelines in the upcoming Roadmap.
- Settlement, post-trade activity, and legal framework: The FCA and BoE set out that they recognise the importance of settlement and wider issues of legal certainty and that, since the publication of the Call for Input, they have confirmed that stablecoins can be used as settlement assets in the DSS (subject to conditions and to Treasury amendments to regulations). The authorities are also considering what further certainty they can provide at this stage and their response on other issues raised will be addressed in the Roadmap.
- Interoperability: The FCA and BoE explained that they regard interoperability as essential to preventing liquidity fragmentation in tokenised wholesale markets. They believe industry should lead the development of technical standards, identifiers and operating norms that enable interoperability, while regulators stand ready to support industry-led solutions. Interoperability is a central focus of the Wholesale Digital Markets Champion’s work, particularly Action Group 2 on secondary markets. Internationally, the authorities will continue engaging through bodies such as IOSCO, CPMI and Project Guardian, as well as bilateral initiatives including the UK-US Transatlantic Taskforce on Markets for the Future. They support greater international cooperation and cross-border testing to facilitate interconnected tokenised markets.
- Custody: The FCA plan to consult on rules for safeguarding relevant specified investment cryptoassets (RSICs) in the first half of 2027 and sets out that it will continue to engage with industry stakeholders as it develops its policy approach. This will include further consideration of the issues identified through the Call for Input. For now, firms will be assessed under CASS 6.
Next steps
FS26/1 sets out that the feedback received will inform the Roadmap, due later this year. The Roadmap will cover key areas including digital securities issuance and settlement, the regulatory treatment of tokenised assets, custody of RSICs, access to central bank money settlement and support for the DIGIT initiative. Importantly, the authorities confirmed that the Roadmap will contain specific timelines and implementation milestones, directly responding to industry requests.
The FCA also acknowledged concerns that pilots and sandboxes alone are insufficient. Firms want a path to scalable, permanent market infrastructure. The authorities therefore committed to developing a long-term framework beyond the DSS, while continuing to use lessons learned from that initiative to shape future regulation. They also confirmed further work on tokenised gold and announced a future consultation on custody requirements for RSICs, expected in the first half of 2027.