Seven in ten senior figures in UK finance expect tokenisation to reshape financial services, according to a survey published by Lloyds Banking Group.
The bank asked 100 senior decision-makers at major UK banks, insurers, asset managers and financial sponsors. 71% said tokenisation would reshape the industry.
What they expect to gain
Speed came first. 60% named faster payments and settlement as the biggest potential benefit, the ability to move money and assets in close to real time rather than waiting a business day or more. 41% pointed to better collateral and liquidity management.
Rob Hale, co-head of global markets at Lloyds, said: “The next phase is about turning those individual use cases into infrastructure that works at scale.”
Lloyds is not just asking
The survey comes from a bank already doing the thing it asks about. On 24 September, Lloyds was one of seven UK banks, alongside Barclays, HSBC UK, NatWest, Nationwide, Santander and Monzo, to complete the first live customer transactions in tokenised sterling deposits, including two remortgage completions settled with real money.
Lloyds has also tested using tokenised deposits to buy tokenised UK government bonds, and earlier this year worked with Archax and Canton Network on what it described as the UK’s first transaction on a public blockchain.
That makes Lloyds an interested party. A survey on tokenisation’s prospects, published by a bank building tokenisation infrastructure, is a reading of the market’s mood rather than independent evidence.
Where the UK goes next
The government side is moving too. The Bank of England proposed in May extending its core settlement infrastructure towards near round-the-clock availability. An industry task force has estimated tokenisation could add £33 billion a year to UK economic output by 2035, and called for the first tokenised government bond by early 2027.
That gilt is the milestone to watch. A survey measures what finance leaders expect. A government bond issued on a blockchain would show the infrastructure working at scale.
