HM Treasury's Wholesale Digital Markets Champion, Chris Woolard CBE, published the inaugural report of the role in July 2026, addressed to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The report proposes a 12-month, industry-led programme to advance distributed ledger technology in UK wholesale financial markets, covering fixed income primary issuance, repo, collateral, and fund units. The report is at the policy consultation and industry coordination stage; it does not itself constitute a regulatory instrument.
The report draws on the Bank of England and FCA joint call for input on the future of tokenisation in UK wholesale markets, published in May 2026. It identifies gaps in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and associated statutory instruments when applied to tokenised instruments, flagging legal certainty as a priority action group. The Debt Management Office's DIGIT programme for tokenised government bond issuance is cited as a live reference. The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 Digital Securities Sandbox is identified as the primary vehicle for iterating regulatory requirements ahead of full-scale market deployment.
Banks, broker-dealers, asset managers, custodians, and central counterparties are the direct participants in the 54-firm cross-industry taskforce established under the report. These firms must now decide whether to engage with the nine Action Groups on primary issuance, tokenised collateral, tokenised funds, payment rails, legal certainty, interoperability standards, financial crime compliance, tax neutrality, and operational resilience. Firms already operating within the Digital Securities Sandbox face the most immediate relevance: Sandbox outputs are expected to inform the broader tokenisation programme and any resulting regulatory changes.
The report carries no binding legal effect and creates no compliance obligations. Stamp duty and stamp duty reserve tax treatment of tokenised securities is identified as a gap requiring separate action by HM Treasury and HMRC, outside the Champion's mandate. Interoperability standards between distributed ledger protocols remain unresolved and are deferred to a dedicated Action Group. Final recommendations from the 12-month taskforce are expected around mid-2027, at which point legislative or regulatory proposals may follow.
Licentium advises on UK digital asset regulation, including tokenisation of financial instruments and engagement with FCA, Bank of England, and HM Treasury regulatory processes. Work we undertake includes tokenised securities regulatory analysis, Digital Securities Sandbox application support, legal certainty gap assessment for tokenised instruments, and UK digital asset licensing advisory.
Source: HM Treasury, Wholesale Digital Markets Champion First Report, July 2026