In a speech, Financial Conduct Authority Chief Executive Nikhil Rathi called for the UK to move wholesale tokenisation from experimentation to adoption at scale while preserving market integrity, resilience and investor protection. He said an upcoming joint roadmap with the Bank of England will chart a route from testing environments to established market infrastructure, building on their earlier request for industry views. The FCA also intends to consult on safeguarding rules for relevant tokenised investment assets to prevent ambiguity over ownership. More than 120 responses to the earlier request highlighted opportunities to improve post-trade processes and collateral mobility, alongside obstacles involving settlement, prudential treatment, interoperability, insolvency and cross-border law. Rathi said the likely coexistence of traditional, on-chain and decentralised markets raises further questions about accountability, liquidity, price discovery, disclosures, market abuse monitoring and regulatory jurisdiction, particularly as trading moves toward continuous or 24/7 operation.
2026-09-23Financial Conduct Authority
Financial Conduct Authority signals joint tokenisation roadmap and consultation on asset safeguards
Financial Conduct Authority Chief Executive Nikhil Rathi called for wholesale tokenisation to move from pilots to adoption at scale. An upcoming joint roadmap with the Bank of England will set out the transition to established market infrastructure, while the FCA intends to consult on safeguards for relevant tokenised investment assets. Industry feedback highlighted opportunities in post-trade processes and obstacles involving settlement, interoperability and regulatory accountability.