What happened
- Specific facts/numbers: A Bank of England sandbox approval notice dated 18 September 2026 says ClearToken CSD Limited passed Gate 2 of the Digital Securities Sandbox, allowing live activity as a Digital Securities Depository. The article text I could read does not verify additional operating figures beyond that notice.
- Institutions involved: ClearToken CSD Limited is the applicant. The Bank of England issued the approval notice, and the Digital Securities Sandbox is a joint UK framework involving the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority.
- Regulatory/technical context: The approval sits within the UK Digital Securities Sandbox, which is designed to let firms test distributed-ledger-based securities infrastructure in a supervised environment before broader legislative change. Gate 2 is the stage for live activity.
- What to watch next: Watch for any further Bank of England or FCA updates on the scope of ClearToken’s permitted activities and any subsequent sandbox milestones; no more specific next milestone was identified in the readable material.
Why it matters
The approval indicates that UK authorities are moving tokenised securities infrastructure from testing toward supervised live use, which could shape how post-trade settlement models develop for institutional markets.
HKMA Relevance
Direct: This is Bank of England action on tokenised securities market infrastructure, a central-bank policy area directly relevant to the HKMA’s own work on tokenisation and settlement.