After what the UK Government has called a “competitive procurement process”, it has revealed that HSBC is the selected provider for the launch of the DIGIT issuance after bids opened in October 2025.  

Together with HSBC, the government is actively engaging with additional suppliers in order to facilitate the accessibility of DIGIT, as well as ensuring that the development of secondary markets is supported. 

Patrick George, Global Head of Markets & Securities for HSBC, says: “After a competitive selection process, we are very pleased that HM Treasury has chosen our market-leading digital assets platform, HSBC Orion, which already has a proven track record of delivering successful and liquid market outcomes in other jurisdictions.”

What is the DIGIT pilot? 

Described as a “key pillar” of the UK government’s Wholesale Financial Markets Digital Strategy, the issuance of DIGIT aims at supporting the government’s commitment to maintaining the country as a “world-leading global financial centre”. 

DIGIT is designed to be short-dated, and sits on a platform that operates within the Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS) to deliver on-chain settlement. 

To ensure that it is taking full advantage of an area with clear significant growth potential, the government is positioning the UK financial services sector to take full advantage. 

The pilot, which sits separately to the government’s main debt management programme, aims to explore and enable how distributed ledger technology (DLT) can be beneficial to UK sovereign debt issuance processes. 

DLTs have been explored by other financial hubs as the opportunity for growth presents itself. 

The government also hopes the pilot will kick-start the development of UK-based DLT infrastructure in addition to the adoption of DLT across UK financial markets. 

Lucy Rigby KC MP, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, notes: “We want to attract investment and make the UK the best place to do business, which is why we are launching DIGIT to understand how the UK can capitalise on this technology, deliver efficiencies and reduce costs for firms.”

Where does HSBC Orion come in? 

HSBC Orion is a strategic platform for asset tokenisation. To date, it has enabled the issuance of over US$3.5bn in digitally native bonds.

This has taken place across a global market, spanning sovereign, supranational, financial institutions, corporate sectors and central banks. 

The issuance of digital corporate bonds and digital gilts on blockchain could improve the UK’s debt capital markets structure.

It has the potential to do this by hastening transaction settlement times with a more efficient means to issue and trade bonds, ultimately aiding to drive liquidity in both primary and secondary markets.  

HSBC Orion has also been used in first-of-a-kind transactions, including the world’s largest digital bond to date: a multi-currency green bond issued by the Hong Kong Government for US$1.3bn in 2025. 

Commenting on the selection, Lucy says: “This is exactly the kind of financial innovation we need to keep the UK at the forefront of global capital markets and I’m looking forward to working with HSBC and other parties to deliver DIGIT.”

Other noteworthy occasions in 2025 include Qatar’s first digital bond issued by QNB Group and the first digital treasury certificates issued by the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. 

Focusing on its use in the UK, the selection will place the UK in pole position among the G7 nations to issue the first-ever tokenised sovereign bonds chain. 

Patrick says: “The UK is a home market for us and the sixth largest economy in the world. HSBC is delighted to be supporting the continued development of the gilt market, market innovation and the growth of the broader UK economy.”