CP25/28: Progressing fund tokenisation

Download CP25/28 (PDF)[1]

Why we are consulting

Tokenisation is emerging as a key driver of future financial services.

We want to give firms more clarity and confidence to adopt tokenisation in fund management, and make sure our rules are fit for the future.

Our key proposals include:

• Guidance for operating a tokenised fund under the Blueprint model[2].
• Introducing an optional new model for direct dealing in conventional and tokenised authorised funds.
• A roadmap to advance fund tokenisation and address key barriers.
• A discussion on future tokenisation models that use DLT to provide tokenised portfolio management at retail scale and how regulation may need to change to be fit for the future.

Who this is for

Our proposals apply to:

• Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) management companies.
• UK Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) managing authorised funds.
• Depositaries of authorised funds.

This paper may also interest:

• AIFMs and depositaries of unauthorised funds.
• Portfolio managers providing services to both professional and retail investors.
• Investment platform providers.
• Financial advisers and investment consultants.
• Custodians and cryptoasset custodians.
• Fintech firms.
• Stablecoin issuers and stablecoin backing asset pool providers.
• Consumer groups and individuals should read Chapter 5, which explores how tokenisation might change investment management in the future.

Next steps

This consultation has now closed. 

We will publish feedback on responses and issue a Policy Statement with final regulatory requirements once we have reviewed your comments.

Background

Tokenisation is a way of representing an asset, or ownership of an asset, by recording it on distributed ledger technology (DLT).

DLT is a digital system that records details of transactions in multiple locations at the same time, rather than on a centralised database.

Following our discussion paper, ‘Updating and Improving the UK regime for Asset Management’ (DP23/2),[3] we have continued to support industry tokenisation initiatives in the UK.

In our January letter to the Prime Minister[4], we confirmed we would progress our roadmap for digital assets within asset management.