UK Finance, a trade association representing over 300 financial services firms in the UK, has initiated a collaborative pilot project for tokenized sterling deposits (GBTD).
The trade group has commenced the pilot phase for the tokenized deposits project, designed to offer a digital version of traditional British pound commercial bank money, as it announced on Friday.
The pilot has been launched in collaboration with six major banks in the UK, including Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest, Nationwide, and Santander.
UK Finance intends to run the pilot until mid-2026, aiming to explore benefits for customers, businesses, and the UK economy, with a focus on greater control over payments, fraud prevention, and enhanced settlement processes.
Quant Network to provide infrastructure
The GBTD infrastructure from UK Finance will be supplied by Quant Network, a UK-based platform specializing in blockchain interoperability.
Quant’s role builds on its successful completion of the first phase of the Regulated Liability Network (RLN), a UK-led initiative for shared ledger-based financial market infrastructure, which UK Finance launched in 2024.
The RLN project involved all six banks participating in the GBTD initiative, along with other major financial institutions such as Citi, Mastercard, Standard Chartered, Virgin Money, and Visa.
Three major use cases
The GBTD project will evaluate three primary use cases: online marketplace payments, remortgaging processes, and wholesale bond settlement.
According to Quant founder and CEO Gilbert Verdian, the project transcends merely enhancing payments, aiming to enable new forms of programmable money that will “fundamentally transform how value is moved and managed.”
“Our involvement highlights Quant’s leadership in digital finance, as we partner with leading UK institutions to create the infrastructure for tomorrow’s economy,” Verdian stated.
UK FCA to launch crypto regulations in 2026
The launch of UK Finance’s tokenized deposits pilot coincides with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) finalizing its crypto regulatory framework, expected to be fully implemented in 2026.
In April 2025, the UK Treasury published a policy note on the “Future financial services regulatory regime for crypto assets,” which clearly distinguishes between qualifying stablecoins and tokenized deposits as well as electronic money.
Related: UK to strengthen ties with US on crypto matters: Report
According to a report by the Financial Times on Sunday, the FCA has been accelerating crypto approvals recently in response to criticism, as the UK approaches the implementation of a comprehensive regulatory framework next year.
Meanwhile, the European Union has been making steady progress on the application of the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, which came into full effect in late 2024. Although MiCA broadly regulates tokenization across various crypto-assets, tokenized deposits are excluded from its regulatory framework, as they remain governed by conventional banking and deposit regulations.
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