The first batch of participants in the UK's digital securities sandbox has received preliminary approval

ChainCatcher news, according to Ledger Insights, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) opened the Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS) for applications at the end of September, relaxing certain rules for DLT market infrastructure. The two entities that have been announced to receive preliminary approval are (expected) Central Securities Depository (CSD) Montis (owned by Archax) and ClearToken, which plans to operate as a central clearinghouse for crypto and tokenized assets. ClearToken has received support from companies such as Nomura Securities' Laser Digital and Standard Chartered's Zodia Custody.

Similar to the EU's DLT pilot regime, the DSS program aims to relax the requirement that exchanges and central securities depositories must always be separate (which can sometimes be impractical for DLT).