Speech by Richard Baker, Founder and CEO of Tokenovate, given to the Digital Markets & Digital Money APPG at the Evidence Session held on September 2, 2025.
Thank you, Chair, parliamentarians, and fellow speakers. It’s an honour to be here with you today. I am Richard Baker, a technologist, founder, and CEO of Tokenovate, a UK Fintech developing next-generation market infrastructure for Capital Markets.
This evening, I am here to talk about a generational shift in money and markets
We stand at a pivotal moment in the history of money and markets. For centuries, the UK’s financial system has been anchored by two core pillars of trust.
First, public money: the banknotes and central bank reserves backed by the Bank of England, representing the ultimate settlement asset in our economy.
Second, private money: commercial bank deposits, e-money, and money market instruments. These are contractual claims, rather than ultimate settlement assets. Yet, they underpin day-to-day commerce, lending and capital formation, and their credibility ultimately relies on their convertibility into public money.
Today, technology is introducing a third pillar, a generational shift that demands Parliament’s attention.
Blockchain has given rise to cryptoassets, stablecoins, and tokenised assets. These innovations offer decentralised value-transfer, fiat-backed digital tokens for payments, and fully digital instruments like gilts, equities, and digital money market funds.
They promise efficiency, transparency, and competitiveness. However, without clear legal foundations, they risk creating fragmentation, consumer confusion, and systemic vulnerabilities.
Why Parliament’s Role is Critical
Parliament now has a unique nexus opportunity to set the global standard for this new era:
- The Property (Digital Assets etc.) Bill will provide statutory certainty on ownership rights for digital assets, which will introduce greater clarity with respect to custody arrangements and insolvency treatment.
- The Digital Securities Sandbox, run by the FCA and Bank of England, is enabling controlled trials of tokenised financial market infrastructure.
- A stablecoin regulatory framework is now being built to ensure safe redemption and systemic stability for digital forms of private money.
These initiatives, combined with the UK’s legal system, capital markets depth, and world-class fintech expertise, position us to lead, not follow, on the international stage.
DIGIT: The Sovereign Anchor
At the heart of this ambition is DIGIT, HM Treasury’s flagship programme. Its mission is simple but transformational: to issue natively digital gilts.
As the sixth largest economy in the world, the UK has the opportunity, scale and credibility to set the global benchmark. DIGIT could demonstrate that sovereign issuance can be fully digital, standards-driven, and trusted throughout its lifecycle and, most importantly, ready for secondary markets from day one. No other international market has done this.
CDM: A Common Language for Finance
For this to succeed, we need a shared language for financial contracts. The Common Domain Model (CDM), initially developed by The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), supported by International Securities Lending Association (ISLA) and International Capital Market Association (ICMA), and now operated within the Open Source community FINOS, is that standard.
Embedding CDM into DIGIT will:
- Standardise issuance and settlement, aligned with international standards.
- Enable instant collateral mobility, with tokenised gilts moving seamlessly under existing agreements like ISDA CSAs and ICMA GMRAs.
- Provide interoperability between blockchain platforms, custodians, and traditional systems.
- Deliver regulatory efficiency, with lifecycle events feeding directly into digital regulatory reporting.
Strategic Advantages
If we act decisively, London can become the reference market for tokenised sovereign debt, unlocking three core benefits:
- Market efficiency: Real-time settlement, instant collateral substitution, and reduced reconciliation.
- Risk reduction: Transparent ownership, programmable controls, and legally enforceable rights.
- Innovation leadership: A blueprint that private markets, fintech innovators, and other sovereign issuers will follow.
A Roadmap for the Next 12–24 Months
We propose a clear sequence of action:
- Pass the Property (Digital Assets etc.) Bill: Giving legal certainty on rights, custody, and insolvency for digital assets.
- Embed CDM in DIGIT: Building a unified standard for issuance and lifecycle events.
- Expand the Digital Securities Sandbox: Running real-world pilots for tokenised gilts, repos, and collateral settlement with existing deep and liquid secondary markets.
- Roll out stablecoin oversight: Safeguarding redemption and financial stability.
- Publish a UK Interoperability Code: Connecting wallets, settlement systems, and financial market infrastructure through open APIs.
- Launch a digital collateral rail pilot: Demonstrating instant, cross-chain settlement of digital gilts and digital money (including stablecoins and tokenised bank deposits).
A Call to Action: Embrace CDM as the Interoperability Layer
This is more than financial innovation. It is about securing London’s and the United Kingdom’s place at the centre of global markets in the digital age.
By making DIGIT the sovereign anchor, embedding CDM as the interoperability layer, and strengthening legal certainty, we can ensure that programmable money and assets are not only safe and scalable but also globally competitive.
The UK has an unprecedented opportunity to define a new era of financial trust and infrastructure. If we act now, we will cement London’s position as the world’s financial hub, not just for today’s markets, but for the digital markets of tomorrow.
Thank you for your attention.
