HM Treasury, working with the UK Debt Management Office, has opened a preliminary market engagement exercise to gather industry input ahead of procuring services for a pilot Digital Gilt Instrument (DIGIT) issuance using distributed ledger technology. The engagement is intended to inform the design of the pilot, the Government’s commercial strategy and the shape of a subsequent procurement process. The published materials set out initial design parameters, including that DIGIT will be a new, digitally native and transferable UK Government debt instrument issued on a DLT platform operating within the Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS), short-dated, and run as a real but experimental issuance separate from the Government’s main debt management programme. The engagement seeks views from investors and financial services firms on demand, key design choices (including interoperability and the role of secondary market trading), and expected delivery timelines, alongside detailed supplier-focused questions on platform architecture and governance, payment and settlement models, onboarding controls (including know-your-customer and anti-money laundering), data and cyber security, operational resilience, and relevant implementation experience. The scope also anticipates that suppliers will need any necessary permissions from the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority to operate in the DSS, and notes that unbacked cryptocurrencies and stablecoins are not within scope for the payment leg. Responses to the engagement questions are requested by 11.59pm on 13 April 2025. An indicative timetable points to publication of a tender notice and Invitation to Tender in late spring 2025 and selection of successful supplier or suppliers in late summer 2025, with the procurement expected to be run in line with the Procurement Act 2023.

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