The UK government has announced the appointment of six firms to act as Joint Lead Managers for the pilot issuance of DIGIT, the Digital Gilt Instrument. This marks a significant step towards delivering the UK's ambitions for digital assets.
DIGIT will be a digitally native UK Government debt issuance, set to be issued onto the HSBC Orion platform within the Digital Securities Sandbox. The pilot issuance is scheduled for the first quarter of 2027.
HSBC and LSEG are collaborating to develop a bilateral link, intended to allow investors to access DIGIT through either infrastructure. The government also intends to list DIGIT as the first digital asset on the LSEG main market.
This initiative follows HSBC becoming the first firm in July to receive approval to operate a live Digital Securities Depository in the Sandbox, with ClearToken being the second. The government plans to lay secondary legislation in the coming months to support the delivery of digital services and issuances in the Digital Securities Sandbox.