Finance06 October, 20262 min read
UK Treasury Appoints Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Morgan Stanley, NatWest, RBC Capital Markets for DIGIT Pilot
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Six banks named joint lead managers for DIGIT pilot of digital gilt. Pilot issuance targeted for the first quarter of 2027.
9 outlets told this the same way.
DIGIT pilot banks named
The UK Treasury named six joint lead managers for the pilot issuance of the blockchain-based digital gilt known as DIGIT, with the pilot expected to take place by Q1 2027. Lucy Rigby KC MP, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, said, "Digitalisation is central to ensuring that the UK can be a global hub for digital assets," as the government moved to complete the procurement process announced at Digital Assets Week.
The government appointed Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Morgan Stanley, NatWest, and RBC Capital Markets to support the DIGIT pilot by providing traditional lead manager services, including underwriting services, supporting investor engagement and distributing DIGIT on issuance day. The Treasury said DIGIT will be issued on a platform operating within the Digital Securities Sandbox and will explore how distributed ledger technology (DLT) can be applied across the issuance and lifecycle of the bond, including onchain settlement.
DLT across the bond lifecycle
The UK government said DIGIT will test DLT across the bond’s issuance and lifecycle, including onchain settlement, while operating within the UK’s Digital Securities Sandbox. Cointelegraph quoted Lucy Rigby describing the appointments as an important step toward issuing the digital gilt early next year, calling DIGIT "a practical test of new financial market infrastructure."
Richard Baker, CEO and founder of Tokenovate and a member of HM Treasury’s Wholesale Digital Markets Industry Taskforce, said the pilot will need to address how digital securities connect with existing financial infrastructure, adding, "On-chain settlement will need to connect with cash, custody and existing settlement infrastructure." Marius Jurgilas, CEO of Axiology and a former central banker, said the potential impact of DIGIT could extend beyond government borrowing by connecting issuance, distribution, trading and settlement through regulated infrastructure.
Next steps and what’s at risk
The UK Treasury said the DIGIT pilot follows HSBC’s appointment as the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) supplier in February and a July announcement that HSBC and LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group) signed a memorandum of understanding to deliver a bilateral Digital Securities Depository link. The government said the pilot’s design features include DIGIT being digitally native, short-dated, issued on a platform operating within the Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS), delivering on-chain settlement and independent of the government’s main debt management programme.
The UK government said the pilot is seeking to enable it to explore how DLT can be applied to UK sovereign debt issuance processes and to catalyse the development of UK based DLT infrastructure and the adoption of DLT across UK financial markets. The government framed the effort as a practical step toward issuance early next year, with Lucy Rigby KC MP saying, "The appointment of Lead Managers marks an important step as we work towards issuance early next year."