UK Regulators Publish Tokenisation Feedback Statement and Call for Input

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England (BoE) (together, the Regulators) have published a joint Feedback Statement (FS26/1) on tokenisation in UK wholesale financial markets. FS26/1 summarises industry responses to the Regulators’ joint Call for Input on the future of tokenisation in UK wholesale financial markets, dated May 2026 (the May CFI). Alongside FS26/1, the FCA has also published a separate Call for Input on “Tokenised gold – opportunities and risk for UK wholesale markets” (the Gold CFI). 

Background 

FS26/1 builds on HM Treasury’s (HMT) Wholesale Financial Markets Digital Strategy and complements the work of its Wholesale Digital Markets Champion. The Regulators’ engagement with the industry, including feedback received on the May CFI, will inform a Tokenisation Roadmap (the Roadmap) setting out their planned work on the digitisation of UK wholesale markets. The Roadmap is expected to include target dates for the Regulators’ individual workstreams. 

FS26/1

The Regulators received 123 responses to the May CFI. Respondents were generally supportive of the commitments made by the Regulators, while calling for faster progress and greater regulatory certainty in areas including prudential treatment, custody, settlement and collateral. In particular, FS26/1 highlights the following: 

• Benefits of Tokenisation. The Regulators consider that the main near-term benefit of tokenisation is likely to be in improving collateral mobility and are therefore progressing work on tokenised collateral. This includes considering whether tokenised assets such as stablecoins should be eligible as collateral in BoE’s Sterling Monetary Framework operations, including the Digital Gilt Instrument (DIGIT). The BoE will also consult later this year on a supervisory statement and discussion paper concerning the acceptance of tokenised collateral by central counterparties. The Regulators remain technology agnostic and will approach tokenisation on the basis of the principle “same risk, same regulatory outcome”. They also expect tokenised and traditional markets to co-exist for a prolonged period. 
• Regulatory Principles. The Regulators remain committed to their regulatory principles, including that the responsibility for regulated activities should remain with identifiable regulated firms rather than technology providers. While regulated firms may use third-party technology, they must remain accountable for outcomes such as operational resilience and know your customer compliance. The Regulators also emphasise that, for traditional investment products, investors must retain recourse if assets are lost or stolen. 
• Prudential and Collateral Treatment. The Regulators confirm their commitment to giving industry clarity on the prudential and collateral treatment of tokenised assets. Their stated ambition is for tokenised assets to be treated in the same way as non-tokenised assets, provided the risks they pose are comparable and sufficiently mitigated under the framework. Further detail, including relevant timelines, is expected in the Roadmap. 
• Settlement, Post-Trade Activity, and Legal Framework. The Regulators recognise the importance of settlement and of wider legal certainty. Since the publication of the May CFI, they have confirmed that stablecoins can be used as settlement assets in the Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS), subject to conditions and amendments to the relevant regulations by HMT. The Regulators are considering what further certainty they can provide at this stage, with their response to other matters raised by respondents to be addressed in the Roadmap.
• Interoperability. The Regulators acknowledge the importance of interoperability in reducing liquidity fragmentation in the UK tokenised wholesale markets. They are of the view that industry is better placed to determine and develop technical standards, identifiers and operating norms. In connection with international interoperability, the Regulators will continue engaging through forums such as the International Organisation of Securities Commission (IOSCO), the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructure (CPMI) and Project Guardian, as well as through bilateral initiatives including the UK-US Transatlantic Taskforce on Markets for the Future (TTMF). 
• Custody of Relevant Specified Investment Cryptoassets. The FCA plans to consult on rules for safeguarding relevant specified investment cryptoassets (RSICs) in the first half of 2027. The FCA will continue to engage with industry as it develops its proposed approach, including on the issues raised in response to the May CFI. In the meantime, firms will be assessed under the FCA’s Client Assets Sourcebook 6.

The Gold CFI

Prompted by the respondents’ references to the strength of the London spot gold market, the FCA is seeking evidence on whether tokenisation would improve how gold is traded, transferred, pledged and held in UK markets. In particular, the Gold CFI considers whether uncertainty around the collective investment scheme (CIS) and the alternative investment fund (AIF) regulatory perimeter may affect the development of certain use cases for tokenised gold. According to the FCA’s view set out in the Gold CFI, tokens representing direct ownership of an allocated gold bar are more likely to fall outside the existing CIS and AIF definitions, whereas fractional interests in a single gold bar could indicate pooling of the form envisaged in such definitions.

Timeline and Next Steps

The Regulators will use the feedback received to develop their joint Roadmap, which is expected later in 2026, and will set out how they intend to progress their work on UK wholesale tokenisation, including specific target dates for the relevant workstreams. The FCA’s separate consultation on safeguarding RSICs in planned for the first half of 2027. 

Responses to the Gold CFI are due by 23 October 2026.

FS26/1, the May CFI and the Gold CFI are available here, here and here, respectively.