Overview
- A Financial Times report on Monday said the Financial Conduct Authority has held private talks with major banks about formal standards for tokenized gold and plans to announce progress in the coming months.
- Regulators set out the policy direction in a joint vision paper published on May 18 that proposed folding tokenized assets into the current UK EMIR collateral framework rather than creating a separate regulatory category.
- The Bank of England is targeting direct digital ledger connectivity by 2027 and a live ledger synchronization service by 2028 while 16 firms are testing issuance and settlement in the Digital Securities Sandbox.
- Regulators and market participants say custody arrangements, enforceable ownership rights and settlement finality must be resolved before tokenized gold can be accepted routinely as margin or collateral for uncleared OTC derivatives.
- London, which handles roughly 70% of global gold trading, is pushing the work to protect its bullion hub and plans a cross-authority roadmap later in 2026 with substantive consultations and pilots running into 2027.