His Majesty's Treasury, colloquially "HMT" or "the Treasury", is the United Kingdom's finance ministry and the legislative architect of the UK financial services framework. HMT sets fiscal policy and writes (or commissions) the primary and secondary legislation under which the UK regulators operate. For tokenisation, HMT owns the legislative framework that the UK Digital Securities Sandbox sits on (the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023), selected HSBC Orion as the platform for the UK Digital Gilt Instrument (DIGIT) pilot on 15 December 2025, owns the UK's stablecoin legislative programme that has progressed through consultations since 2022, and sets the broader cryptoasset legislative direction. HMT is distinct from the regulators (FCA, PRA, Bank of England) in that it is a government department rather than an independent regulator: it sets the rules, the regulators apply them.
What they do
HMT is a UK government department headed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and accountable to Parliament. Its remit covers fiscal policy, public spending, tax policy, and the legislative framework for the UK financial services sector. On financial services, HMT writes primary legislation (FSMA 2000, FSMA 2012, FSMA 2023) and the secondary legislation that gives the regulators their statutory perimeters and powers. The regulators are operationally independent, but their perimeters and rule-making powers are set by legislation HMT initiates. On tokenisation, HMT has been the legislative driver, setting the FSMA 2023 powers under which DSS operates and running the consultation pipeline on stablecoins, cryptoassets, and tokenised securities.
Tokenisation footprint
- Owns the legislative framework for the UK Digital Securities Sandbox. FSMA 2023 gives HMT the power to disapply or modify specified provisions of FSMA 2000, settlement-finality rules, and CSDR equivalents brought into UK law post-Brexit, on a case-by-case basis for sandbox participants.
- Selected HSBC Orion as the platform for the UK DIGIT pilot on 15 December 2025, the first G7 sovereign digital-bond programme of its scale (HSBC media release; The Block). The pilot pairs sovereign tokenised debt issuance on Orion with tokenised commercial-bank deposits as the cash leg for atomic DvP. Structural deep-dive at HSBC Orion + UK DIGIT.
- Owns the UK's stablecoin legislative programme. HMT has run consultations on cryptoassets and stablecoins since 2022, with FSMA 2023 powers for bringing stablecoins inside the perimeter and the CP24/20 FCA consultation on issuance and custody following. The legislative envelope continues to expand as the regulators publish final rules.
- Co-lead with the Bank of England on the digital-pound exploration through the Digital Pound Taskforce. HMT owns the legislative envelope; BoE owns the technical design and monetary aspects.
- Sets the broader cryptoasset legislative direction. The Property (Digital Assets etc) Bill, which would classify digital assets as a third category of personal property under English law, sits on Law Commission work that HMT sponsors through to legislative progression.
Regulatory positioning
HMT is not an independent regulator. It is a government department, with its work directed by ministers accountable to Parliament. The distinction matters for how operators engage it: the regulators (FCA, PRA, Bank of England) supervise firms within their statutory perimeter, while HMT writes the legislation defining those perimeters. Operators with a licence or supervisory matter go to the relevant regulator; operators with a perimeter question go to HMT.
The UK's approach of legislating slowly and piloting widely is in part an HMT design choice. Rather than building a parallel rulebook in the way the EU did with MiCA, HMT has used FSMA 2023 to bring cryptoassets, stablecoins, and tokenised securities inside the existing regulatory perimeter via secondary legislation, and to run sandboxes (DSS) where existing rules can be modified case by case. The deliberately divergent posture from MiCA is why the UK perimeter as of early 2026 remains in piecemeal commencement rather than published as a single comprehensive regime.
Open questions
- Timing of full commencement of the stablecoin and cryptoasset legislative programme initiated under FSMA 2023, and whether the final shape will mirror or diverge meaningfully from MiCA on reserve composition, redemption rights, and EMT-equivalent perimeters.
- Royal Assent timing for the Property (Digital Assets etc) Bill and whether the third-category classification will be incorporated into FCA and PRA guidance for tokenised collateral on the back of commencement.
- Whether HMT will legislate a permanent successor regime to the DSS window or extend the sandbox window itself.
- Whether HMT progresses the digital-pound work toward retail launch or leaves the Bank of England Synchronisation posture as the primary route for tokenised wholesale settlement.