The Bank of England has launched a novel industry experimentation initiative to explore how tokenized assets can be settled using synchronized, atomic settlement in British pounds sterling as part of efforts to modernize the UK’s real-time gross settlement (RTGS) infrastructure.
Synchronization Laboratory initiative According to the bank statement, the 18 selected companies will be tested on a delivery-for-payment and pay-for-payment basis between BoE’s next-generation RTGS core ledger, known as RT2, and external distributed ledger platforms in a non-real-world environment, without the apply of real money.
The six-month pilot, scheduled to begin in spring 2026, is intended to validate the central bank’s design choices for synchronized settlement, assess interoperability between central bank money and tokenized assets, and inform the development of a potential future RTGS live synchronization capability.
Initially announced in October, the initiative brings together 18 participants, including market infrastructure providers, banks, fintechs and decentralized technology companies, to test apply cases including tokenized securities settlement, collateral optimization, currency exchange and digital money issuance.
Among Web3 participants, Chainlink and UAC labs will test decentralized approaches to coordinating synchronized settlements between central bank money and assets issued on distributed ledger platforms. Companies like Ctrl Alt and Monee will focus on delivery-to-payment for tokenized treasury bonds and other securities.
Other participants, including Tokenovate and Atumly, will test contingent margin workflows and digital money issuance and redemption flows designed to coordinate with RTGS settlements. The lineup also includes Swift and LSEG.
The bank said the lab initiative’s work will be used to refine the design of RTGS synchronization capabilities and support further development efforts, and that participants will present their apply cases and lessons learned upon completion of the program.
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Global central banks are expanding pilot programs
The Bank of England is just one of a number of central banks exploring how tokenization, programmable settlement and digital currencies could reshape their core monetary and payment systems.
In May, the Federal Reserve Bank of Fresh York and the Bank for International Settlements released a Project Pine study examining how sharp contracts can support monetary policy in tokenized financial systems, including a prototype toolkit enabling faster and more pliant central bank operations on programmable ledgers.
In October, the Monetary Authority of Singapore announced BLOOM, an initiative to expand settlement infrastructure to support transactions in tokenized bank liabilities and regulated stablecoins.
In addition to tokenization pilots focusing on settlement and market infrastructure, central banks are also experimenting with central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
In Australia, the central bank launched a wholesale trial of a digital currency in July using stablecoins, tokenized bank deposits and a CBDC pilot.
Then in November, the UAE made its first government payment using the digital dirham, and in January, China-led mBridge reported that it had processed $55 billion in cross-border CBDC transactions across multiple jurisdictions.
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