UK Financial Leaders Expect Tokenisation to Reshape Services
A Lloyds Banking Group survey finds 71% of UK financial sector executives believe tokenisation will transform financial services.
UK financial leaders' expectations for tokenisation have surged, according to a new Lloyds Banking Group survey. The poll of 100 decision-makers from banks, insurers, asset managers, and financial sponsors shows 71% now believe tokenisation will reshape how money and assets move, a figure that has doubled from 41% in 2025.
Faster payments seen as primary benefit of tokenisation
Survey respondents identified faster payments and settlement as the leading potential advantage of tokenisation. This benefit was cited by 60% of those polled. Collateral and liquidity management was also a key draw. The data comes from Lloyds' 10th annual Financial Institutions Sentiment Survey, conducted between April and May 2026.
Lisa Francis, the global head of CIB coverage at Lloyds, noted a shift in focus. "Financial institutions have spent years modernising how customers interact with financial services," she said. "Increasingly, attention is turning to the infrastructure behind those experiences."
Lloyds demonstrates real-world tokenisation use cases
Lloyds is actively advancing tokenisation through industry partnerships. In early 2026, the bank completed what it described as the UK’s first public blockchain transaction using tokenised deposits to purchase a tokenised UK government bond, or gilt. This pilot was conducted alongside Archax and the Canton Network.
The bank stated that moving assets and payments onto digital infrastructure could free up capital and liquidity tied up in financial transactions. Rob Hale, Co-Head of Global Markets at Lloyds Banking Group, pointed to the broader opportunity. The real opportunity is to make financial markets work faster, more efficiently and with greater flexibility for clients. Lloyds is demonstrating how tokenised deposits and securities can support faster settlement and efficient movement of collateral.
Government and central bank actions support tokenisation growth
Regulatory and infrastructural developments are aligning to support tokenised finance in the UK. In May 2026, the Bank of England introduced a technical roadmap to extend operating hours for its core wholesale settlement systems toward near-24/7 availability. A subsequent government payments blueprint called for tokenised and traditional forms of money to operate within an interoperable system.
Projections released in July 2026 by a UK government-backed industry working group indicated that securing leadership in tokenised finance could inject up to £33 billion ($44 billion) into the nation’s annual economic output by 2035. The same group called for the UK’s first tokenised sovereign bond by early 2027.
Cross-border coordination is also advancing. In July 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the UK Treasury agreed to align initiatives via a private working group targeting cross-border settlement of tokenised assets. Both agencies called on their domestic regulatory bodies to establish unified supervisory baselines.
The UK government-backed industry task force has called for the country’s first tokenized government bond by early 2027.
