Overview
- HM Treasury selected HSBC’s Orion platform through a competitive tender and appointed Ashurst as legal adviser for the Digital Gilt Instrument pilot.
- The issuance will be short-dated and digitally native with on‑chain settlement and features intended to support secondary market activity.
- The trial will operate inside the Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority’s Digital Securities Sandbox and remain separate from the main debt programme.
- A specific issuance date has not been disclosed, with the pilot expected later in 2026 and a post‑pilot review planned by the Bank of England on eligibility for monetary operations.
- The initiative aims to cut settlement times and operational costs and positions the UK ahead of G7 peers in exploring tokenised sovereign debt.