The International Capital Market Association (ICMA) submitted its response to the call for input on the shared vision set out by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England (BoE) for tokenisation and the future of UK wholesale markets (the “Call for input”).

ICMA’s consultation response builds on ICMA’s constructive and consistent engagement with HM Treasury (HMT), the FCA and the BoE since the early stages of Financial Services and Markets Act (FSMA) 2023 and Financial Market Infrastructure (FMI) sandbox proposals, as underscored by our responses to previous consultations on the topic.

Key points:

• Tokenisation is a key factor in efforts to modernise wholesale market infrastructure, improve operational efficiency and support resilience, competitiveness and access to capital across the wider economy, while reinforcing the UK’s position as a jurisdiction that enables responsible innovation in the future distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based wholesale markets. For these gains to materialise at scale clear regulatory frameworks, coordinated infrastructure development with a view towards interoperability and a sustained focus on practical use cases are necessary.
• ICMA members agree in principle with the vision, regulatory principles and shared ambitions set out in the paper and welcome the steps undertaken to date to allow the offering of tokenised securities products in or from the UK. However, for the vision set out in the paper to be achieved, some further adjustments are necessary, including the suggestions highlighted below.
• The acceleration of plans to allow the use of tokenised collateral for Central Counterparties and the Sterling Monetary Framework is essential to foster demand and increase the appetite for issuers to issue in the UK.
• ICMA members understand that interoperability remains as a point of critical importance and emphasise the relevance of enabling sufficient integration of legacy and tokenised systems beyond settlement infrastructure. We consider common standards critical to facilitate interoperability, both within the UK and on a cross-border basis, with ICMA’s Bond Data Taxonomy standing out as a key initiative.
• ICMA members recognise that the ongoing work on the Digital Securities Sandbox will assist in guiding the future UK regulatory regime for digital securities and would welcome further communication on its progress, along with greater use of collaborative public-private working groups as a great channel for further engagement of the market.

ICMA’s detailed response can be found here.

Source: ICMA