The Bank of England and the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have opened the Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS).
The Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS) aims to reshape regulation by allowing firms to test legislative changes in real world scenarios before the changes are implemented.
The DSS gives firms the opportunity to explore new technologies in traditional financial markets, for example, distributed ledger technology (DLT), a system for storing and managing information distributed across participants in a network. This technology has the potential to improve efficiency and reduce costs in wholesale markets, benefitting industry and investors.
The DSS supports innovation, helps protect financial stability and strengthens the UK’s position as a global and vibrant financial centre, built on globally respected high standards.
The DSS could support financial instruments such as equities, corporate and government bonds, money market instruments such as commercial paper and certificate of deposits, units in collective investment undertakings (fund units) and emissions allowances.
The trading and settlement of derivative contracts and of ‘unbacked cryptoassets’ such as Bitcoin are not in the scope of the DSS.
