FCA and Bank of England to Release Tokenised Markets Roadmap Soon
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced it will release a joint roadmap with the Bank of England in the coming weeks, outlining how the country’s wholesale markets should adapt to tokenisation and digitalisation. This timetable is earlier than previously stated, though the exact publication date and detailed schedule remain unspecified. Jon Relleen, the FCA’s director of infrastructure and exchanges, shared this update during a speech on 5 October at the Reform of the UK Public and Private Capital Markets Summit in London. The roadmap aims to ensure regulation can evolve alongside tokenised markets, rather than predict their future form.
The roadmap follows a joint FCA and Bank of England consultation earlier this year, which received feedback from 123 respondents. Most saw near-term opportunities in post-trade activities, particularly making collateral easier to transfer between parties. While the forthcoming document will offer more clarity, Relleen did not disclose its contents or specific milestones. Tokenisation, which involves representing assets digitally using distributed-ledger technology, could reshape how securities are issued, transferred, traded, and settled.
Relleen emphasized the roadmap as part of broader capital-markets reforms, highlighting progress such as the bond consolidated tape, which launched in June and has seen 1.6 million licenses subscribed. The FCA also noted increases in real-time bond trade visibility, 70% for corporate bonds and 30% for government bonds. Other reforms include a new regulated market for private company shares, PISCES, and upcoming work on digital securities through the Digital Securities Sandbox, which may support the issuance of a digital gilt early next year.
The significance of the roadmap will depend on the practical details it provides, including timelines and regulatory changes. For now, the FCA and Bank of England have framed the work as a response to industry demand for clarity, with the next step being the publication of their joint plan.