Bank of England Authorises ClearToken for 24/7 Tokenised Securities Settlement

Quick Summary

ClearToken CSD has secured Bank of England approval to launch the UK’s first non-bank tokenised securities settlement platform. Operating within the Digital Securities Sandbox, the platform enables 24/7 regulated settlement for equities and bonds, allowing institutions to move away from legacy batch processing toward real-time collateral mobility.

How Does ClearToken Solve Post-Trade Bottlenecks?

ClearToken addresses the primary friction point in digital finance: the lack of regulated post-trade infrastructure. By providing a cloud-native settlement system, the platform removes the reliance on traditional end-of-day batch processing. This allows for continuous 24/7 settlement of tokenised instruments, ensuring that institutional market liquidity remains fluid regardless of time zones or banking hours.

• 24/7 settlement for tokenised equities and corporate bonds.
• Intraday repo functionality allowing borrowing against collateral for hours.
• Cloud-native architecture designed for high-frequency financial market operations.

"The missing piece in tokenisation was never asset issuance, it was the market infrastructure behind it. Settlement, collateral mobility, and payments are the pillars that enable real-world adoption. Today, ClearToken is uniquely positioned, holding UK permissions for all three, with the cash leg already authorised, helping bridge the gap between digital innovation and regulated financial markets." said Ben Santos-Stephens, CEO of ClearToken Group.

What Assets are Eligible for Tokenised Securities Settlement?

The initial rollout focuses on high-liquidity UK instruments to ensure market stability and trust. ClearToken CSD supports FTSE 350 equities, UK sovereign debt (Gilts), and both GBP and non-GBP corporate bonds. Crucially, the system utilizes standard ISIN identifiers, maintaining full fungibility between traditional and digital versions of the same assets to prevent liquidity fragmentation.

• £600m limit for UK Gilts during the sandbox phase.
• £900m limit for GBP Corporate Bonds.
• £1.8bn limit for non-GBP Corporate Bonds.

"The UK has turned a tokenisation framework into a live, supervised market infrastructure where regulated institutions can settle assets carrying real rights. Institutions take their certainty from a rulebook, default arrangements and a named, accountable operator standing behind the ledger. That is what ClearToken CSD provides." said Akash Sharma, Head of Policy & Regulatory Affairs at ClearToken Group.

Why is the Gate 2 Approval Significant for UK Markets?

Passing "Gate 2" of the Digital Securities Sandbox makes ClearToken the first non-bank financial infrastructure provider to operate a live Digital Securities Depository. This tokenised securities settlement milestone signals a shift from experimental pilots to supervised market environments. It provides banks and asset managers with the legal and regulatory certainty required to integrate digital assets into their existing treasury and collateral systems.

"Our approval to operate a live DSD is hugely significant for the market. The biggest hurdle for institutional adoption of digital securities has not necessarily been the technology; it has been whether the infrastructure around that technology is sufficiently regulated, robust and legally recognised. Banks, asset managers and other market participants can now have confidence that digital securities can operate within a trusted, regulated post-trade framework alongside traditional financial assets." said Ben Santos-Stephens, CEO of ClearToken Group.

FF NEWS TAKE:

This isn't just another sandbox experiment; it is the industrialization of tokenisation. By securing Gate 2 approval, ClearToken is effectively building the plumbing for 24/7 markets. The ability to perform tokenised securities settlement for FTSE 350 assets and Gilts under Bank of England supervision moves the needle from "if" to "when" for institutional adoption. This is a massive win for UK capital markets infrastructure.