Lucy Rigby

This initiative is part of the government's broader push to digitize wholesale financial markets and position the UK as a global hub for digital assets.

Economic Secretary Lucy Rigby has framed the digital gilt as central to that work.

The Treasury and market commentators have noted persistent challenges.

Tokenized securities still represent only a small share of global markets, and limited secondary market liquidity remains a key constraint.

Uh, these banks will underwrite and distribute the bonds when they're issued, uh, and this is expected to go live by the first quarter of 2027.

Uh, Economic, uh, Secretary Lucy Rigby was speaking at the UK Digital Assets Week in London yesterday, and she told delegates, delegates, uh, that Britain was more ambitious, more than ambitious enough to lead the world in digital assets.

HSBC was chosen in February as the pilot's, uh, technology supplier, uh, and the bond will be issued on its Orion platform.

Uh, and HSBC was the first firm approved to run a live depository in the so-called Digital Security Sandbox.

They've come up with a very robust but very proportionate framework.

And so the nuts and bolts of the rules that are applied to crypto firms are um i think have landed in a very very good place and i think that's testament to the engagement that the um the regulators had we had with industry but also i should say that in the uk i think there is also a very strong and powerful tone from the top and um just as an aside i'm digressing but i will come back to your question um just as an aside i was actually at the labour party conference um this week um where obviously andy bernard was kind of setting out his stall to the electorate but um i also I had the benefit of speaking with Lucy Rigby, the city minister, and she gave remarks at the business day.

And she's just relentlessly pro-innovation.

She's pretty remarkable.

ShareRadio's thought for this week is called quids in for the wealthier, quids out for the disadvantaged.

And it starts with this quote from Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Lucy Rigby.

The oldest matured child trust fund accounts are now more than six years old, and some young people may not know they have savings waiting for them.

There's a curious thing about this Labour government that I don't understand, and I hope Chancellor John Healey will resolve it in the forthcoming budget.

And James, as it moves into the House of Commons, presumably it will become the economic secretary's baby.

So we talked a bit before the summer about Lucy Rigby's reappointment to the role.

And we also pondered whether a change in chancellor might signal a change in financial services policy direction.

So have there been any early indicators of change in the Treasury?

Everything we know about John Healey, as we discussed with Chris Pond before the summer break, is that he is not the kind of chancellor who's going to be pandering to the banks.

And so I think we're going to see a bit more balance.

You know, I think Lucy Rigby in her, you know, she made a speech yesterday at UK Finance and, you know, it was very friendly towards the industry and again, you know, talking about wanting to support the industry grow and innovate and all the rest of it.

I think we'll continue to hear that message, but it is also going to be laced with some more challenging messages like, and by the way, guys, you kept all the interest on the balances when interest rates went from zero to 4% and we want a bit of it in tax now.