Seven major UK financial institutions have completed the first set of live retail transactions using tokenised sterling deposits under the Great British Tokenised Deposit initiative, marking a new stage in the development of programmable commercial bank money.
The participating institutions are Barclays, HSBC UK, Lloyds Banking Group, Monzo, Nationwide, NatWest and Santander. The initiative is being coordinated by UK Finance and is designed to explore how tokenised deposits can be used in everyday financial transactions while retaining the protections associated with conventional bank deposits.
The first live pilots included two remortgage completions and a consumer marketplace transaction. In the mortgage trials, funds were locked and automatically released once the required completion conditions were met, helping reduce manual checks and settlement delays. The structure also allowed customers to continue earning interest on their money until completion.
A separate marketplace transaction tested the technology between a private buyer and seller. Funds remained locked in the buyer’s account until the goods were successfully exchanged, demonstrating how conditional payments could potentially reduce transaction risk in digital commerce.
The transactions were carried out on the GBTD platform developed by Quant, with EY providing project management support and Linklaters advising on legal matters and project rulebooks. UK Finance said additional pilots are expected in the coming months, including trials linking tokenised customer money with digital assets for settlement.
The project forms part of wider efforts by UK banks to explore programmable payments and modernise financial infrastructure as the industry examines new applications for tokenisation across banking and digital finance.
