UK banks moved one step closer to making tokenised sterling deposits part of day-to-day payments, as industry body UK Finance began a live pilot running to mid-2026.
The selected group, London-based Quant, will deliver the programmable money infrastructure. Participating lenders include HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest, Barclays, Nationwide, and Santander.
The pilot will test tokenised deposits in three flows:
- Person-to-person marketplace payments, where conditional and escrow-like logic can mitigate scams.
- Remortgaging workflows that coordinate funds release and identity checks among conveyancers and lenders.
- Wholesale asset settlement using instant delivery-versus-payment that synchronises cash and securities.
Prior work under the UK Regulated Liability Network showed legal DvP with automated synchronisation of tokenised deposits, tokenised assets, and wholesale central bank money.
Programmable money
The choice of tokenised deposits reflects the policy preference to keep innovation inside the banking perimeter. Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey said in July he could not see the need for bank-issued or third-party stablecoins relative to tokenisation of deposits, and the Financial Conduct Authority’s stablecoin regime is not expected to be finalised until the end of 2026.
UK Finance’s RLN work also concluded that programmability could reduce failed payments, lower fraud, and streamline home-buying processes.
Quant says it will provide the programmable money layer for live tokeniz
Go to Source to See Full Article
Author: Liam ‘Akiba’ Wright
