UK's Largest Banks Complete World's First Interbank Transactions Using Tokenized Deposits
HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest and Santander UK have completed the world's first interbank transactions using tokenized deposits, moving money directly between banks via distributed ledger technology rather than through traditional centralized clearing systems.
UK's Largest Banks Complete World's First Interbank Transactions Using Tokenized Deposits
Several major UK banks have completed the world's first interbank transactions using tokenized deposits, with participants including HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest and Santander UK. The transactions relied on distributed ledger technology to transfer and settle funds directly between banks, rather than through traditional centralized clearing systems.
Tokenized deposits are commercial bank deposits represented on-chain as digital tokens. Unlike stablecoins, they remain deposit liabilities on the bank's balance sheet and are subject to existing deposit insurance and regulatory frameworks. The test was advanced by a regulatory sandbox project led by UK Finance, aimed at validating the technology's feasibility in payments, settlement and cross-border scenarios.
According to disclosures from participating institutions, the transactions were completed in a controlled environment, with a focus on testing the interoperability of tokenized deposits, settlement finality and compliance review processes. If subsequently expanded to a production environment, the underlying pathways for interbank clearing and cross-border settlement could face restructuring, though regulatory approval and system overhauls remain the main variables.
Source: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/09/24/uk-s-largest-banks-complete-world-s-first-interbank-transactions-using-tokenized-deposits
Provenance & status
- Byline
- OceanAlt Editorial
- First published
- 2026-09-25
- Last updated
- 2026-09-25
- Content type
- Newsflash
- Source material
- View original ↗
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