LONDON, July 6 (Reuters) – Britain’s role as a leading financial centre is at stake unless it comes up with a roadmap for digital representations of stocks, bonds, loans and real estate, trade association UK Finance said in a report on Thursday.
So-called tokenised assets can be exchanged on distributed ledger technology (DLT), also used for cryptocurrencies, to keep track of transactions, validate ownership, and dispense with a paper trail.
The report, written with consultants Oliver Wyman, said tokenised issuance is still a fraction of securities issued traditionally on exchanges, with digital bond issuance just 1% of the $20.6 trillion of long-term fixed income issued in 2021.
Issuance in Britain has been minimal compared with places such as Singapore, Hong Kong, France and Germany, and it needs to partner with industry to increase momentum, the report said.
Britain’s banks seek government roadmap to tokenise stocks and bonds
