On 1 October 2026, Sasha Mills, Executive Director of Financial Market Infrastructure at the Bank of England (BoE), gave a speech setting out ways the BoE intends to continue to support responsible innovation.

Mills set out that the BoE considers that the debate on digital assets has moved on from whether the technology works as, for example, securities can be issued on distributed ledgers, and smart contracts can automate lifecycle events and sets out that the harder question is therefore whether these uses can become trusted, widely used and commercially sustainable and that this depends on clear answers about ownership, which record is authoritative, settlement finality, what happens on insolvency, who is accountable and where the regulatory perimeter falls.

Mills also highlighted that the BoE does not see stability and innovation as being in conflict and that it welcomes the Government’s proposal to extend its secondary innovation objective to payment systems. More specifically, she emphasises the BoE’s view that tokenisation needs coordinated change across the market, interoperable systems and firm legal foundations. To support this, the BoE and the Financial Conduct Authority published a Call for Input on Tokenisation in May, and a full Roadmap is due later this year.

Mills also gives a further example that the Digital Securities Sandbox lets firms trade with real customers within meaningful limits, for example £8–13.1 billion for gilts and now allows stablecoins as a settlement asset. As a result, she sets out that the BoE considers that this will help shape a permanent regime, including future rules for central securities depositories and settlement finality, and that the DIGIT digital gilt could help speed up development of the wider ecosystem. The BoE also plans to launch a live synchronisation service in 2028, so that new platforms can settle in central bank money.

Finally, Mills makes clear that the BoE makes five commitments in relation to these points, in particular that it will:

  1. Stay neutral on technology.
  2. Support experimentation and scaling.
  3. Improve its own processes.
  4. Back the Digital Markets Champion.
  5. Work with other authorities at home and abroad to reduce fragmentation.

For each commitment, industry is challenged to invest, collaborate and show that commercial value can be delivered safely and at scale.