UK Banks Achieve Live Tokenized Sterling Deposit Payments

Seven major UK banks have successfully completed live customer transactions using tokenized sterling deposits on shared infrastructure. This milestone achievement is part of a project aimed at testing payments, including person-to-person transfers and remortgage transactions. The participating banks include Barclays, HSBC UK, Lloyds Banking Group, Monzo, Nationwide, NatWest, and Santander.

The key aspect of this project is that it uses real commercial-bank money, rather than a privately issued stablecoin or a digital pound. The goal is to retain the legal and regulatory protections associated with ordinary bank money while adding blockchain-style programmability and faster settlement.

Quant built the platform for the pilot, while EY provided project management and Linklaters developed legal advice and rulebooks. The project includes person-to-person transfers and remortgage transactions, with UK Finance planning to test digital-asset settlement over the coming months.

The success of this pilot is a significant step towards demonstrating that tokenized bank money can work across institutions and support transactions customers already understand. This achievement also highlights the importance of interoperability in the banking system, allowing deposits issued by one institution to move across common infrastructure without compromising regulatory protections or controls.