The UK’s Wholesale Digital Markets Champion Chris Woolard CBE will establish a cross-industry taskforce by next month as part of his role to lead the financial industry in driving the adoption of digital technologies.
Woolard was appointed to the role on 21 April to provide market leadership and support industry progress on the development of a tokenised wholesale financial markets ecosystem, as well as to support the government’s work to deliver a more efficient and competitive financial sector.
The government has now published the terms of reference for the role, which include establishing the new taskforce by July 2026. The taskforce will include representatives from across the market ecosystem to provide input and support.
In the role, Woolard will also be required to deliver a report to the Chancellor by July 2027 on how UK wholesale markets can best adopt tokenisation and other related technologies. The report will also cover how the sector and government can ensure DLT interoperability.
Woolard’s appointment will run for 18 months, with ongoing work to support implementation of the strategy across the sector.
You can read his interview with Capital Pioneer at Sibos last October, where he highlighted the growing role of tokenisation in wholesale‑market design.
