Rathi calls for live adoption of wholesale tokenisation
Financial Conduct Authority Chief Executive Nikhil Rathi called on UK wholesale markets to move beyond pilot testing into commercial tokenisation. Speaking at TheCityUK dinner, he outlined upcoming safeguarding rules and a joint roadmap with the Bank of England.
From pilot fatigue to production
UK wholesale markets must transition from sandboxes to live commercial adoption of tokenisation and distributed ledger technology, according to Financial Conduct Authority Chief Executive Nikhil Rathi.
He cited market estimates pointing to a £33 billion boost to UK gross domestic product and £14 billion in annual tax revenue from digital infrastructure.
Following more than 120 responses to an industry consultation highlighting widespread “pilot fatigue,” the FCA is preparing new initiatives.
These follow earlier actions, including the approval of HSBC Orion as a live Digital Securities Depository, the April fund tokenisation framework, and the authorisation of the UK's first native tokenised fund in June.
Roadmaps, custody and AI monitoring
The regulator is preparing a joint tokenisation roadmap with the Bank of England alongside a formal consultation on safeguarding rules for tokenised assets.
Rathi noted that the rise of continuous trading and parallel on-chain markets requires fresh supervisory approaches.
To oversee more than 9,000 firms and process one billion rows of daily market data, the FCA is deploying agentic artificial intelligence tools to detect market abuse faster, while examining gold tokenisation logistics.
Sandboxes have run their course
The drive to exit experimental sandboxes reflects valid industry impatience.
Yet regulatory agility alone cannot solve the cross-border insolvency and legal ambiguities that deter institutional scale.
Without statutory property legislation, UK tokenisation risks remaining fragmented.