UK’s largest banks complete world’s first interbank transactions using tokenized deposits
- Seven of the U.K.’s largest banks completed the world’s first customer transactions using tokenized British pound deposits on a shared platform built by Quant.
- The trial included remortgage payments and a consumer purchase, testing whether regulated bank money can move between institutions and support retail payments.
- Tokenized deposits remain liabilities of issuing banks and retain conventional deposit protections, and the group will next test their use in settling digital assets.
The U.K.'s largest banks executed the world’s first customer transaction using tokenized British pound deposits on a share platform.
The money movement included remortgage payments and a test of a consumer purchase, according to an announcement on Thursday.
The project is testing whether regulated bank money can move in tokenized form between institutions and in retail payments. The deposits moving across a common system involving several banks differs from a recent initiative by Lloyds to use tokenized deposits to buy a tokenized gilt within its own arrangement.
Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Monzo, Nationwide, NatWest and Santander took part in the Great British Tokenized Deposit initiative. The platform was built by Quant, a distributed ledger technology (DLT) service provider.
The tests come as the Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority prepare the U.K.’s financial system for tokenization and longer settlement hours. Regulators want to support tokenized markets while considering stablecoins for institutional settlement.
The group will next test the settlement of digital assets using tokenized customer money, according to the announcement.