Bank of England consults on tokenised collateral at CCPs, eyes stablecoins and tokenised MMFs

The Bank of England has published a supervisory consultation setting out how central counterparties (CCPs) may seek approval to accept tokenised collateral, with responses due by 12 February 2027. The Bank’s governing principle is “same risk, same regulatory outcome,” and its initial reading is that existing rules do not bar CCPs from holding tokenised versions of already-eligible assets. A tokenised gilt, however, is treated as a new collateral type because its delivery mechanism differs from the conventional instrument, so each CCP must still obtain explicit Bank approval before accepting it.

The consultation’s most significant forward signal is that the Bank is actively soliciting evidence on three asset classes as candidates for future CCP collateral eligibility: regulated stablecoins, tokenised money market fund (MMF) units, and tokenised gold. Stablecoins face a meaningful threshold: the current Rulebook requires collateral to be highly liquid, a standard they may not presently meet, so acceptance would depend on either a rule change or a formal waiver.

For market participants, the practical consequence is a two-track dynamic. Near-term, tokenised versions of existing eligible instruments can proceed through the Bank’s approval process under current rules. Longer-term, the stablecoin and tokenised MMF pathways remain genuinely open questions, contingent on whether the evidentiary record the Bank is gathering supports regulatory accommodation. The February 2027 deadline gives operators a defined window to submit data and shape that record.