The UK Government has issued a procurement notice for a pilot of blockchain-based Digital Gilt Instrument (Digit) issuance.
In November 2024, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced at Mansion House the launch of a pilot Digital Gilt Instrument (Digit) issuance, leveraging distributed ledger technology (DLT).
The Treasury has today published additional information, engagement questions and has issued a Preliminary Market Engagement Notice through the contract finder service. This provides further information on the scope of the Digit pilot and seeks views from potential suppliers including the financial services sector, to inform the development and delivery of Digit.
The Treasury says the exercise will allow the Government to understand the current landscape of services available, or in development, in the UK, as well as to gain insight into what potential investors want to see from a Digit issuance to help inform HMT’s commercial strategy.
The pilot aims to enable the Government to explore how DLT can be applied across the lifecycle of the UK sovereign debt issuance process and catalyse the development of UK-based DLT infrastructure and the adoption of DLT in UK financial markets.
The pilot’s initial design features have been set in order to meet these aims and include Digit being digitally native, short-dated, issued on a platform operating within the Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS), and independent of the Government’s main debt management programme.