UK Banks Execute First Transactions With Tokenized Deposits

Seven major U.K. banks have completed their first live customer transactions utilizing tokenized sterling deposits, according to a press release from the banking and finance industry association UK Finance on Thursday (Sept. 24). The transactions were conducted through the Great British Tokenised Deposit (GBTD) initiative, which was organized by UK Finance and includes Barclays, HSBC UK, Lloyds Banking Group, Monzo, Nationwide, NatWest, and Santander.

The GBTD platform, created by Quant, serves as a shared industry infrastructure for tokenized commercial bank money.

In one retail transaction, the GBTD participants completed two remortgage processes, locking deposit funds and releasing them automatically upon completion, which streamlined manual checks and settlement delays. Another transaction involved a consumer marketplace transaction, where a buyer purchased an item from a private seller.

The programmable tokenized deposits allowed money to be locked in the buyer's account and released only after successful goods exchange, reducing transaction risk. The GBTD participants intend to conduct additional pilots in the coming months to showcase digital asset settlement by linking tokenized customer money with digital assets.

Jana Mackintosh, managing director of payments and innovation at UK Finance, commented on the live transactions, stating that they demonstrate practical, real-world benefits of tokenized deposits, such as contingent payments that give customers greater control over their money. By bringing the industry together, the GBTD initiative is proving how tokenized deposits can strengthen the U.K.'s payments infrastructure, support innovation across the economy, and enhance the U.K.'s competitiveness on the global stage.

UK Finance had announced in September 2025 that it and several financial institutions launched a pilot project aimed at conducting the first U.K. live transactions of tokenized sterling deposits. This pilot builds upon the successes of earlier stages of the U.K. Regulated Liability Network (RLN) project, which explored a new type of financial market infrastructure incorporating tokenization, programmability, and other advanced capabilities for payments and settlement.