UK Finance, along with major banks like Barclays, Citi UK, HSBC, and Natwest, has completed the experimental phase of its tokenization and CBDC platform, demonstrating significant benefits and economic value. The Regulated Liability Network test revealed potential for new functionalities, such as programmable payments, and highlighted its role in advancing financial market infrastructure.

UK Finance, the trade association for the UK banking and finance industry, has published the results of an experimental phase of the Regulated Liability Network (RLN) UK proof of concept, carried out with major member banks including Barclays, Citi UK, HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest and Santander UK. The RLN model is a shared, multi-asset ledger for tokenised bank deposits, tokenised central bank money (CBDC) and other regulated liabilities, designed to support 24/7 programmable settlement and more efficient payment and securities workflows. In this phase, participants simulated issuance and use of tokenised commercial bank deposits alongside a hypothetical tokenised wholesale CBDC, testing how such a platform could operate within the UK’s existing legal and regulatory framework. The experiment concluded that a UK RLN-style platform could generate material economic value and operational benefits, including reduced settlement times and reconciliation effort, better liquidity and collateral management, and new functionality such as programmable payments and conditional settlement across multiple institutions. It also highlighted policy and design considerations, such as how a tokenised CBDC might be integrated with private bank money, how to govern shared infrastructure, and how to align with ongoing Bank of England work on a potential digital pound and wholesale CBDC experiments. The findings position tokenisation not as a separate crypto system but as an evolution of existing financial market infrastructure, consistent with the UK’s broader move toward production-grade tokenisation of money and securities within regulated frameworks.

✨ AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

More coverage

• The Evolution of Digital Assets in the U.K. (blog.chain.link)
• [PDF] FR/17/2025 Tokenization of Financial Assets - IOSCO (iosco.org)
• Tokenized Finance in: IMF Notes Volume 2026 Issue 001 (2026) (elibrary.imf.org)
• [PDF] UK RLN Experimentation Phase - UK Finance (ukfinance.org.uk)
• III. The next-generation monetary and financial system (bis.org)

Explore the topic

• Tokenization
• Tokenomics
• Markets
• UK