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UK Banks Launch Live Pilot for Tokenised Sterling Deposits

The tests run to mid-2026 to measure whether programmable money can reduce fraud within the UK’s existing banking framework.

Bank of England Governor, Andrew Bailey gestures as he speaks at the Bank of England Stability Report, in London, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. Alastair Grant/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
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United Kingdom crypto
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Overview

  • Industry group UK Finance is coordinating the live programme with Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest, Nationwide and Santander.
  • Quant Network was selected to provide the programmable-money infrastructure designed to interoperate with RTGS/CHAPS, Faster Payments and Open Banking.
  • The pilot executes real transactions across three use cases: online marketplace payments, remortgaging workflows and wholesale delivery-versus-payment settlement.
  • The work builds on prior Regulated Liability Network trials that tokenised commercial bank deposits while retaining deposit protections and legal finality.
  • Regulators have left stablecoin rules to be finalised by end-2026, and Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey has urged banks to prioritise tokenisation over issuing stablecoins.