Tokenisation Could Transform Financial Services as 71% of UK Financial Institutions Back Digital Shift: Lloyds
Tokenisation is emerging as a potential turning point for financial markets, with nearly three-quarters of senior leaders at the UK’s largest financial institutions expecting the technology to reshape how money and assets move through the financial system, according to a new survey by Lloyds.
The findings were published by Lloyds on October 2, 2026, as part of its tenth annual Financial Institutions Sentiment Survey, which gathered views from 100 senior decision-makers across the UK’s largest banks, insurers, financial sponsors, and asset and wealth managers. According to Lloyds, 71% of respondents expect tokenisation to transform the future of financial services.
Tokenisation refers to the representation of assets such as cash, bonds and funds in digital form on blockchain-based infrastructure. The technology is increasingly being explored as a way to make transactions faster and more efficient while retaining the protections and safeguards associated with traditional financial assets.
Faster settlement emerges as key opportunity
According to Lloyds, the strongest perceived benefit of tokenisation is faster payments and settlement. Around 60% of financial institutions surveyed identified this as the biggest opportunity offered by the technology.
Collateral and liquidity management followed, with 41% of respondents highlighting these areas.
The potential impact extends beyond simply speeding up transactions. By bringing assets and payments onto digital infrastructure, tokenisation could allow transactions to be processed automatically when predefined conditions are met. This could simplify processes, reduce operational complexity and improve how financial institutions manage capital.
Lloyds said that freeing up capital and liquidity currently tied up in financial transactions could allow institutions and corporates to deploy those resources more efficiently elsewhere, potentially supporting lending, investment and innovation across the wider economy.
Lisa Francis, Global Head of CIB Coverage at Lloyds, said the industry is increasingly shifting its attention from customer-facing digital experiences to the infrastructure underpinning financial markets.
“Tokenisation is a key part of that shift,” Francis said, adding that organisations are exploring how the technology can help them transact in a safe and trusted environment, improve efficiency, make better use of capital and enable new products and services.
Financial institutions step up technology investment
The growing interest in tokenisation comes as financial institutions increase their focus on emerging technologies more broadly.
Lloyds’ survey found that 77% of respondents now consider investment in new and emerging technologies a growth priority. That is almost double the 41% recorded in the previous year’s survey.
At the same time, 64% of institutions surveyed said they plan to increase capital expenditure over the next 12 months.
Modernising financial and market infrastructure was also identified as one of the UK’s major economic opportunities over the coming year, according to Lloyds. The findings point towards a broader shift in how financial institutions are approaching technology, with investment increasingly focused not only on improving customer experiences but also on upgrading the systems through which money and assets move.
From individual use cases to market infrastructure
For tokenisation to move beyond experimentation, however, the technology will need to operate across different financial systems and asset classes.
Rob Hale, Co-Head of Global Markets at Lloyds, said the immediate benefits include faster settlement, more efficient use of collateral and improved movement of liquidity.
“The next phase is about turning those individual use cases into infrastructure that works at scale”