UK banks have completed what UK Finance described as the first live customer transactions using tokenised sterling deposits through the Great British Tokenised Deposit initiative. The trade body announced the development on 24 September 2026, marking a move from industry testing to customer-facing transactions across shared interbank infrastructure.
The initiative brings together Barclays, HSBC UK, Lloyds Banking Group, Monzo, Nationwide, NatWest and Santander. Transactions were executed on infrastructure developed by Quant, according to UK Finance.
Live tokenised-sterling transactions included remortgage completions
UK Finance said the live pilots completed two remortgages, locking funds and releasing them automatically at completion, as well as a programmable consumer marketplace transaction.
The results involved customers and interbank execution, not just a technical proof of concept: payment timing and release conditions were set within the transaction flow. CoinDesk likewise reported remortgage and marketplace-payment tests by Barclays, NatWest, HSBC and other major UK banks, describing them as the first interbank customer transactions of their kind.
Seven banks used Quant’s shared infrastructure
The seven participating institutions are using a common infrastructure layer developed by Quant, rather than separate systems for each bank. That shared setup is central to the initiative’s interbank element: a tokenised-deposit payment can be executed between participating institutions on the same infrastructure.
The remortgage completions and marketplace payment are identified in UK Finance’s announcement as completed live customer uses, with the automatic release of locked funds at completion demonstrating the programmable settlement mechanism in practice. The announcement does not specify transaction values, volumes or a timetable for broader availability.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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