UK names 6 banks to lead first digitally native government bond

The UK government has appointed six major banks to lead the issuance of its first digitally native government bond, with the pilot expected by the first quarter of 2027.

Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Morgan Stanley, NatWest and RBC Capital Markets were named joint lead managers for the Digital Gilt Instrument (DIGIT) following a competitive procurement process. Economic Secretary to the Treasury Lucy Rigby announced the appointments Tuesday during a keynote at UK Digital Assets Week.

The banks will provide underwriting, investor engagement and distribution services for the pilot issuance.

Source: Lucy Rigby

DIGIT will be issued on a platform operating within the UK’s Digital Securities Sandbox and will test the use of distributed ledger technology (DLT) across the bond’s issuance and lifecycle, including onchain settlement. The government said the pilot is intended to explore the use of DLT in sovereign debt markets while encouraging the development of digital financial infrastructure in the UK.

The project follows HSBC’s appointment in February as the pilot’s DLT supplier and a July agreement between HSBC and the London Stock Exchange Group to develop a digital securities depository link.

In an X post on Tuesday, Rigby said the appointments mark an important step toward issuing the digital gilt early next year, calling DIGIT “a practical test of new financial market infrastructure.”

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Digital bond faces infrastructure test

In comments shared with Cointelegraph, Richard Baker, CEO and founder of Tokenovate and a member of HM Treasury’s Wholesale Digital Markets Industry Taskforce, said the pilot will need to address how digital securities connect with existing financial infrastructure:

On-chain settlement will need to connect with cash, custody and existing settlement infrastructure, with common standards and legal certainty keeping lifecycle events consistent across systems.

Baker said that building that connectivity from the outset could help demonstrate whether tokenization can improve liquidity and market efficiency without creating new digital silos.

Marius Jurgilas, CEO of Axiology and a former central banker, added that the potential impact of DIGIT could extend beyond government borrowing:

Connecting issuance, distribution, trading and settlement through regulated infrastructure could broaden their investor base and create more funding options. Government support for that development can help establish the foundations for a market in which capital moves more easily between countries and reaches a wider range of issuers.