Britain wants a payments system where pound sterling, stablecoins and tokenized deposits all run on the same rails. HM Treasury has put that goal into an update of the National Payments Vision, first issued in November.
The Payments Vision Delivery Committee, publishing for the Treasury, released the update on a Thursday. Its main addition is infrastructure that lets tokenization and emerging digital money work with conventional payment systems. The committee calls the aim a “diverse multi-money ecosystem.”
The update names “programmable payments, including those that rely on tokenization” as possible product-level arrangements to support payment innovation across the UK. Tokenized payments, in other words, now have a place in the national roadmap instead of sitting at the edge as a market experiment.
One rulebook
The update sits on top of a commitment made in April 2026 by the Treasury and Economic Secretary Lucy Rigby. They promised a unified rulebook for traditional and tokenized payments, covering stablecoins and tokenized deposits. A consultation on changes to payment services and electronic money regulation is due, though its timing has not been confirmed. The aim is a single framework for both kinds of instrument.
Bank of England and the FCA
The Bank of England has proposed running its core settlement infrastructure for close to 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Its stated reasons include cross-border payments and new settlement models as tokenization grows. Feedback on the proposal closed on 3 July 2026, and a feedback statement is expected over the summer.
The Financial Conduct Authority confirmed earlier in the same week that its licensing window for crypto firms opens in September 2026 and closes on 28 February 2027. The regime goes live on 25 October 2027. Trading platforms, custodians, stablecoin issuers, staking providers and other intermediaries each need FCA authorization to operate.
The updated blueprint also refers to work suggesting tokenization and distributed ledger technology could make fund management more efficient. That is not a firm proposal.
