UK Finance, a commercial association that represents more than 300 financial services companies in the United Kingdom, has launched a joint pilot project for tokenized sterling deposits (GBTD).
The commercial group began the pilot phase for the tokenized deposit project, whose objective is to provide a digital representation of the traditional money of the British Libras Commercial Bank, announced Friday.
The pilot launched himself in collaboration with six main banks that operate in the United Kingdom, including Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Natwest, Nationwide and Santander.
United Kingdom Finance plans to manage the pilot until mid -2016 and aims to explore the benefits for customers, companies and the economy of the United Kingdom, pointing to greater control over payments, fraud prevention and the most efficient settlement processes.
Quantitative network to provide infrastructure
The GBTD infrastructure of Finance of the United Kingdom will be provided by Quant Network, a United Kingdom headquarters that specializes in blockchain’s interoperability.
Quant’s participation is based on his successful delivery of the first phase of the Regulated Responsibility Network (RLN), an initiative led by the United Kingdom for the infrastructure of the financial market based on shared accounting books, which the United Kingdom was launched in 2024.
The RLN project hired the six banks that participated in the GBTD initiative, along with other important financial institutions, including CITI, Mastercard, Standard Chartered, Virgin Money and Visa.
Three main use cases
Among the use cases, the GBTD project will test three main areas: market online payments, resortation and liquidation processes of wholesale bonds.
According to the founder and CEO of Quant Gilbert Verdian, the project goes beyond improving payments and is about allowing new forms of programmable money that “will fundamentally transform how the value moves and manages.”
“Our participation underlines Quant’s leadership in digital finances, while we work together with the main institutions of the United Kingdom to build the infrastructure that feeds the economy of tomorrow,” said Verdian.
United Kingdom FCA to launch cryptographic regulations in 2026
Tokenized deposit pilot of the United Kingdom launched in the midst of the Financial Behavior Authority (FCA) that ends its cryptographic regulatory framework, and the complete regime is expected to enter into force in 2026.
In April 2025, the United Kingdom Treasury published a policy note on the “regulatory regime of future financial services for cryptographic assets”, highlighting a clear distinction between the stable rating and tokenized deposits and electronic money.
Related: United Kingdom to strengthen ties with us in cryptographic matters: Report
According to a Financial Times report on Sunday, the FCA has recently been accelerating in response to criticism, since the United Kingdom approaches the adoption of a complete regulatory framework next year.
Meanwhile, the European Union has constantly advanced in the application of markets in the regulation of crypto-active assets (MICA), which entered all its force at the end of 2024. While Mica broadly regulates the tokenization between several cryptographic assets, the tokenized deposits remain out of their regulatory scope, since they continue to govern under the traditional bank and the marks of deposits.
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