The UK plans to issue its first G7 digital sovereign bond before early 2027

The UK plans to issue its first digital sovereign bond by early 2027, becoming the first G7 country to issue government debt on a distributed ledger.

The bond will be listed on HSBC's Orion platform and included in the digital securities sandbox of the Bank of England (BoE) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to test reduced settlement times and lower costs. Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey stated that the BoE plans to make the bond eligible as market operation collateral, allowing banks to use the bond in central bank financing transactions.