London, 16.12.24 – Fnality has announced that the Bank of England has designated its Sterling Fnality Payment System (£FnPS) for Settlement Finality protections. This marks a significant milestone for Fnality as it joins a select group of digital financial market infrastructures (FMIs) in the UK.

As a live payment system leveraging distributed ledger technology (DLT) to facilitate its clients’ wholesale digital asset ambitions, this designation places Fnality among FMIs that are both central bank-regulated and equipped with Settlement Finality protections. In practical terms, its system provides participants with an added layer of security and certainty when executing wholesale digital asset transactions, even during financial stress or participant insolvency. Transactions will be processed as intended, minimising disruptions to its participants and reducing systemic risk across the broader financial ecosystem.

Notably, Fnality has achieved a historic first, being the only DLT-based payment system to receive this designation in the UK. This underscores not only the robustness of its platform but also the growing recognition of blockchain-enabled solutions within regulated financial markets.

Angus Fletcher, CEO of Fnality UK, said: “Settlement Finality is an incredibly exciting milestone for the Fnality team. Given the rigorous standards required for this designation, ranging from legal clarity and technical resilience to the strict operational and procedural frameworks mandated by the Bank of England, this achievement highlights the credibility of DLT and asset tokenisation in institutional finance. Fnality’s designation marks the UK’s readiness to embrace the next phase of wholesale digital capital market innovation.”

As Fnality continues to pioneer new possibilities in wholesale payments, this milestone reaffirms its commitment to providing a trusted, regulated, and resilient infrastructure that enhances liquidity management and provides the critical payment leg for digital assets.

– ENDS –

Media contact

The PHA Group – fnality@thephagroup.com

About Fnality

Fnality is developing a series of regulated DLT-based wholesale payment systems. Each system, known as a Fnality Payment System (FnPS), is supervised by its respective central bank.

Within a FnPS, participants utilise a representation of funds held at central bank for instant wholesale payments. The launch of FnPSs in key jurisdictions will enable real-time cross-currency payments, and the secure atomic settlement of any delivery versus payment transactions around the clock. The credit quality of the central bank funds underpinning Fnality Payment Systems provides the missing ingredient for novel digital asset markets: institutional-grade digital cash.

In December 2023, the Sterling FnPS, previously recognised by HM Treasury as a systemically important payment system, commenced controlled live payments. Joining a handful of other regulated payment systems in the UK, it became the world’s first regulated DLT-based wholesale payment system, settling in a digital representation of funds held at central banks.

Fnality’s shareholders comprise: Banco Santander, BNY Mellon, Barclays, BNP Paribas, CIBC, Commerzbank, DTCC, Euroclear, Goldman Sachs, ING, KBC Group, Lloyds Banking Group, Mizuho Financial Group, MUFG Bank, Nasdaq Ventures, Nomura, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, State Street Corporation, UBS and WisdomTree.

About the author

Fnality Press Team