UK Finance, the industry body for UK financial services, has initiated a live pilot for tokenized sterling deposits (GBTD), set to run until mid-2026. The project involves six major banks: HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest, Barclays, Nationwide, and Santander, with London-based Quant Network providing the programmable money infrastructure using its Overledger interoperability platform and PayScript for payment logic.
The pilot will test three key use cases: person-to-person marketplace payments with conditional release to reduce scams, remortgaging workflows for synchronized funds and identity checks, and wholesale asset settlement via instant delivery-versus-payment (DvP). This builds on prior work under the UK Regulated Liability Network (RLN), which demonstrated legal DvP with automated synchronization of tokenized deposits, assets, and wholesale central bank money.
Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey emphasized a preference for tokenized deposits over third-party stablecoins, and the Financial Conduct Authority's stablecoin regime is not expected until end-2026. UK Finance's RLN analysis suggests programmability could cut fraud losses by 5–15% in certain flows, lower processing costs by 5–10%, and streamline settlements to sub-day timelines. Quant CEO Gilbert Verdian highlighted the transformative potential for cross-border applications, though initial tests are domestic.
The pilot aligns with the UK's National Payments Vision and parallel digital gilt initiatives, with potential production rollouts focusing on high-risk payments and asset settlements if successful.