HM Treasury's Wholesale Digital Markets Champion, Chris Woolard CBE, published his inaugural report to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 13 July 2026. The report is a policy-level recommendation to government and industry rather than a statutory instrument or final rule. It establishes a delivery roadmap for tokenisation of UK wholesale financial markets and creates nine Taskforce Action Groups, each addressing a designated priority area, with a 12-month mandate to deliver live end-to-end use cases.
The nine Taskforce Action Groups address the following priority areas: primary issuance including the Digital Infrastructure for Gilts and related Issuance of Tokens programme, tokenised collateral, tokenised funds, payment rails for digital markets, legal and regulatory certainty, interoperability standards, financial crime compliance, tax neutrality, and market resilience. The report operates within the existing UK digital securities regulatory architecture, including the Digital Securities Sandbox operated jointly by the Bank of England and the FCA under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023. The cross-industry taskforce of 54 firms will report progress and live use cases over the 12-month cycle.
Banks, asset managers, custodians, central securities depositories, and financial market infrastructure providers participating in UK wholesale markets will need to assess their positions across the nine priority areas. Tokenised repo has been designated the initial target for live end-to-end use cases among the 54 taskforce member firms, making it the near-term operational test of the delivery roadmap. The International Monetary Fund estimates that global asset tokenisation may reach $12 to $16 trillion by 2030, setting the commercial context for the initiative. Firms not participating in the Digital Securities Sandbox should determine whether the legal and regulatory certainty workstream affects their transition planning.
The report is a delivery-planning document; implementation requires subsequent regulatory action by the FCA, Bank of England, and HM Treasury within their existing statutory powers. Legal certainty on tokenised instrument title, settlement finality, and insolvency treatment remains an open question that the legal and regulatory certainty Taskforce Action Group will address. Tax neutrality between transfers of tokenised instruments and conventional instruments is a pending issue for HM Revenue and Customs. The Digital Securities Sandbox's operational scope and the DIGIT programme timeline will shape the pace of delivery.
Licentium advises on UK digital asset regulation and wholesale market compliance and may assist directly or through its partner network. Banks, asset managers, custodians, fintech firms, and infrastructure providers seeking to engage with the Digital Securities Sandbox or the taskforce workstreams are welcome to contact us. Work we undertake includes UK digital securities regulation, tokenised asset legal analysis, Digital Securities Sandbox applications, financial markets regulatory advisory, and UK financial crime compliance for digital asset activities.
Source: HM Treasury, Wholesale Digital Markets Champion First Report, 13 July 2026