UK Authorities Announce the Creation of the “Digital Markets Champion” Position

• The new “champion of digital markets” will lead the introduction of blockchain technology into the financial infrastructure.
• Authorities are forming a working group to transition to a new format of asset accounting.
• The program aims to accelerate the issuance of digital government bonds and modernize wholesale markets.

The UK announced the creation of a new position — “champion of digital markets”. He will oversee the tokenization of financial instruments and the digitalization of the country’s wholesale markets. The government’s plans were announced by Finance Minister Lucy Rigby in a speech prepared for the Digital Assets Week conference in London, Bloomberg writes.

According to Rigby, the key task of the appointed specialist is to bring together the private sector and public institutions to implement tokenization. In other words, he will work to convert traditional assets such as stocks and bonds into a format based on blockchain technology.

At the same time, the government will create a new structure, the Dematerialization Market Action Taskforce. It will deal with the gradual abandonment of paper certificates and the transition of financial instruments into digital form.

The UK Treasury previously unveiled a strategy for wholesale markets that will modernize issuance, trading, and settlement systems. The document emphasizes that blockchain and artificial intelligence will be key elements of the revamped infrastructure.

One of the directions of the strategy will be the issuance of digital government bonds, designated DIGIT. They will be issued in a distributed network, ensuring transparency and automation of settlements.

This week, the authority began accepting applications from technology companies wishing to participate in the creation of a system for the placement of digital government bonds. Rigby said that both local and international participants are showing interest in the project.

The program on digitalization of financial markets is part of a broader initiative of the government to strengthen the status of London as a global center of fintech innovation and digital assets, the Minister stressed.