UK Finance calls for execution on tokenisation as rivals pull ahead
Key points
- UK Finance and Oliver Wyman published a report on 8 September 2026 arguing the UK has the legal and regulatory foundations for tokenised wholesale markets but has not converted them into market activity.
- Financial and related professional services contribute approximately £290 billion in annual gross value added, representing £11 in every £100 of UK economic output, and employ nearly 2.5 million people.
- The sector pays over £110 billion in tax each year, framing the tokenisation competitive race as a question of national economic consequence rather than a niche infrastructure debate.
- Chris Woolard, appointed as Wholesale Digital Markets Champion earlier in 2026 and reporting to the Chancellor, is running a twelve-month programme through nine action groups, with a live tokenised repo trial targeted for Spring 2027.
- A global sell-side firm quoted in the report characterised the UK's position as 'mid-table', neither failing nor leading, which summarises the report's core competitive concern.
UK Finance and Oliver Wyman have published a joint report concluding that the United Kingdom has assembled the legal and regulatory groundwork for tokenised wholesale markets but has so far failed to convert that foundation into measurable market activity. Three years on from UK Finance’s first tokenisation report, the central message has shifted from readiness to delivery, and the authors direct that challenge at government and member institutions alike. One global sell-side firm quoted in the report described the UK as feeling “mid-table”: neither at the bottom nor competing for leadership.
The report anchors the urgency in economic terms. Financial and related professional services generate roughly £290 billion in annual gross value added, equivalent to £11 in every £100 of UK economic output, employ nearly 2.5 million people, and contribute more than £110 billion in annual tax receipts. The authors argue that if the next generation of wholesale market infrastructure takes root in New York, Frankfurt, or Singapore, UK firms will find themselves operating on systems designed, governed, and priced by others.
The sharpest operational ask in the report concerns the Wholesale Digital Markets Champion, a role filled earlier this year by Chris Woolard and reporting to the Chancellor, with a remit to coordinate private-sector delivery of the Treasury’s wholesale digital strategy. Woolard’s initial programme spans nine action groups over twelve months, with a live tokenised repo trial targeted for Spring 2027. The report’s implicit read is that this timeline, and the coordination architecture behind it, now carries significant weight for whether the UK closes the gap with faster-moving jurisdictions.