UK Finance is expanding the trial phase of its experimental shared ledger, aiming to monitor banking payments and explore the digital assets landscape. Leading banks such as Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, Citigroup, Mastercard, and Visa are participating in this trial phase.

The trial is a step toward establishing an efficient commercial mechanism that all banks can use to tokenize deposits and securities. By accepting additional assets as tokens on a unified blockchain, the goal is to facilitate convenient and swift cross-border transactions while reducing the risk of errors and threats.

According to Gilbert Verdian, CEO of Quant, the initial testing began in February and focuses on building interoperable blockchain networks and providing technology for testing purposes.

It is expected that businesses will utilize the testing platform for two to three years before the technology is fully deployed for commercial use. Testing results are scheduled to be released in August. Fintech startups and technology companies will have the opportunity to join the program in July to start testing new products based on tokenized commercial bank money.

Verdian added that companies are eager to test the technology before central banks develop their currencies. Programmable payments offer banks revolutionary capabilities, allowing business operations to run more efficiently without being constrained by current payment mechanisms.

Asset managers are also expected to use the testing platform to tokenize their funds.

This trial is just one of several initiatives with similar goals. The Bank of International Settlements has introduced various projects to understand how tokenized forms of money, such as central bank digital currencies, will function in practice.

Meanwhile, financial regulators in the UK, Singapore, Japan, and Switzerland have convened to examine use cases for fund and asset tokenization.

UK Finance has been developing the concept of a regulated liability network for over a year.