The United Kingdom’s central bank is advancing two major initiatives aimed at moving the nation closer to 24/7 financial settlement infrastructure.
Many businesses and consumers no longer understand why they can send a stablecoin or real-time payment in seconds while traditional bank transfers remain constrained by business hours. To address this gap, the Bank of England (BoE) plans to extend the operating hours of Britain’s payment systems to include Sundays and certain bank holidays over the coming years.
Separately, the BoE and the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority are seeking industry feedback on how tokenization can be more broadly implemented across the UK financial services ecosystem. Tokenized equities—such as stocks and bonds—are the initial focus, but regulators are also considering aspects like tokenized real-world assets and tokenized deposits.
Keeping Competitive and Independent
Several factors are driving the UK’s continued push to modernize its payments infrastructure. One is the need to keep critical financial systems current as new payment rails and technologies emerge, including digital assets and instant payments.
Another priority is maintaining the competitiveness and independence of the UK’s financial infrastructure on a global scale. The BoE noted that the U.S Federal Reserve is also moving toward expanded weekend settlement capabilities.
More broadly, there has been a growing push in Britain for greater payments sovereignty. For example, a UK industry group recently advocated for the creation of a domestic payments rail capable of challenging the global dominance of Visa and Mastercard.
Advocating for Innovation
The Bank of England has also supported a range of additional financial innovations, including the development of an instant payments system similar to Brazil’s Pix or India’s UPI. This system could help reduce the dominance of card payments, which currently account for roughly 64% of transactions in the country.
All these initiatives could dramatically accelerate the modernization of the UK financial system, although implementation at this scale will take time. The BoE has indicated that expanding settlement hours to include Sundays and holidays could take three to five years, with changes introduced incrementally.
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