UK finance minister pushes for blockchain-based digital gilt bonds

Tulip Siddiq, the finance minister, is pushing for Britain to start issuing “digital gilts” on a blockchain. However, the Debt Management Office (DMO), the Treasury’s executive body responsible for issuing and managing government bonds, opposes the move, according to a former minister and several department officials familiar with the discussions. Officials said Siddiq was determined to move forward to combat the risk of Britain being “left behind” by its global peers. While traditional bonds have largely moved from paper to electronic trading in recent decades, digital bonds are different in that they are issued and traded using blockchain technology. Proponents say the technology can improve efficiency and reduce costs by eliminating middlemen. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has hailed it as the “next generation” of financial markets. But using blockchain to issue bonds is still in its infancy and accounts for only a small portion of the market. Experts say multiple systems are being developed for issuing digital bonds, meaning the infrastructure developed today may be different from the one that ultimately prevails. A finance ministry official briefed on the discussions said: "There has been some resistance to reform but Tulip doesn't see any specific reason why it shouldn't be done. In the long term this is where we want to be. We are not keeping pace with the rest of the world and there is a risk of being left behind." (FT)