UK selects HSBC to lead digital gilt issuance by 2027
The bank joins five others as lead manager after providing the DIGIT platform.
The UK Treasury appointed 
HSBC Holdings alongside five other banks as joint lead managers for the pilot issuance of digital gilts on October 6, 2026. The government expects the digital bond sale to take place by the first quarter of 2027.
Barclays, Morgan Stanley, Lloyds, NatWest, and RBC Capital Markets were also named to lead the pilot. Earlier in 2026, the UK government selected HSBC to provide the blockchain platform, called DIGIT, which will issue, distribute, and settle the instruments.
The project aims to modernize how the country's capital markets operate. Tokenization is intended to make issuance and record-keeping faster and cheaper, though digitally issued securities still represent a tiny fraction of global markets due to limited secondary market liquidity.
Digitalisation is central to ensuring that the UK can be a global hub for digital assets and the government's commitment to the issuance of a digital gilt is a core part of this agenda.
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