The Bank of England has proposed extending its core settlement infrastructure to near-24/7 operating hours — and the reasoning is unambiguous. Tokenized assets, digital securities, and stablecoin markets do not sleep on weekends, and the UK’s central bank is finally acknowledging that its financial plumbing needs to catch up.
On May 18, 2026, the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority jointly launched a consultation to extend the operating hours of the UK’s Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system and CHAPS payment rail. The consultation closes July 3, 2026, with initial changes not expected before 2029 and full extended hours projected for 2031.
It is a long runway. But the proposal’s existence — coming from two of the world’s most conservative financial regulators — marks something significant: the tokenization of real-world assets is no longer a crypto industry ask. It is now a regulatory infrastructure problem.
The Gap the Proposal Addresses
The RTGS system and CHAPS rail are the backbone of UK wholesale finance. They settle interbank payments and securities transactions that underpin everything from government bond trading to corporate lending. Currently, both operate on business-day hours — roughly 6 AM to 6 PM GMT on weekdays.
Tokenized assets, by contrast, are designed to settle instantly, around the clock, on programmable ledgers that do not observe bank holidays. When a tokenized Treasury bond or a stablecoin settlement needs to interface with the RTGS system for final sterling settlement, it hits a wall every evening at 6 PM and again across the entire weekend.
According to the joint BoE-FCA consultation document, this mismatch is increasingly limiting the development of UK tokenized finance. Blockchain.news reported that the proposal is “aimed at preparing wholesale markets for tokenised finance” — the central bank’s own framing.
The Phased Plan
The BoE’s proposed timeline is conservative:
- Phase 1 (pre-2029): Additional Sunday settlement windows and extended daily hours beyond current close
- Phase 2 (2031 target): Full near-24/7 operation with minimal overnight gaps
This is not a crypto weekend warrior running the plumbing — this is the Bank of England operating at the pace of regulatory deliberation. The 2031 target for full hours is arguably optimistic given the infrastructure coordination required across thousands of financial institutions.
But the direction of travel is set. CryptoRank noted that the BoE’s own consultation framing cited tokenized asset settlement as a primary driver alongside longer-term stablecoin market development.
What This Signals for Institutional Crypto
The BoE’s move arrives in a context where multiple major central banks are rethinking settlement infrastructure in parallel. The U.S. Federal Reserve’s FedNow instant payments service went live in 2023 but still operates within daily limits. The European Central Bank is running tokenized securities settlement trials through its T2S system.
The common thread is that public blockchains have demonstrated something central banks cannot easily replicate from inside their own systems: 24/7, global, programmable settlement with atomic finality. The industry spent years arguing that this was an advantage. Central banks are now admitting it by working to close the gap.
For tokenized real-world assets — a sector now exceeding $15 billion in on-chain value according to May 2026 data — the BoE’s infrastructure move is directly validating. Tokenized government bonds, money market funds, and corporate debt instruments can only achieve their full efficiency potential when the fiat settlement leg operates at the same speed as the token leg.
The Stablecoin Layer
The BoE’s broader financial infrastructure review, published around the same time, also addressed stablecoins. CoinMarketCap’s analysis noted that the central bank’s stablecoin framework acknowledges that sterling-backed stablecoins may require real-time access to the RTGS system to maintain their peg reliably.
This has implications for UK-regulated stablecoin issuers who want their products to function as genuine payment instruments rather than tokens that are only redeemable during banking hours. A near-24/7 RTGS creates the technical foundation for that.
Criticism and Limitations
The proposal has attracted some institutional scepticism. Critics note that the 2029–2031 timeline is long enough that private infrastructure — whether through bank-run tokenization networks, SWIFT upgrades, or blockchain-native settlement — may have effectively solved the problem before the BoE’s new hours take effect.
There is also the question of whether the UK is acting fast enough relative to competitors. Singapore’s MAS has been running around-the-clock settlement experiments since 2022. Hong Kong’s HKMA completed its Project Ensemble tokenized interbank settlement trials in 2024. The BoE’s 2031 target is arriving fashionably late to a party that started several years ago.
Still, the announcement itself matters. When the Bank of England puts 24/7 tokenized asset settlement into a formal consultation document, it moves from industry aspiration to regulatory roadmap — and that shift has a way of accelerating everything downstream.
FAQ
Why is the Bank of England extending settlement hours?
The BoE and FCA cited tokenized asset markets and stablecoin settlement demands as primary drivers. Tokenized securities operate 24/7 but currently cannot access central bank settlement outside business hours, creating friction for institutional tokenization projects.
When will near-24/7 settlement go live in the UK?
The BoE’s phased plan targets initial extended hours before 2029, with full near-24/7 settlement by 2031. The consultation period runs until July 3, 2026.
How does this affect crypto and blockchain companies in the UK?
UK-regulated stablecoin issuers and tokenized asset platforms could gain access to real-time sterling settlement infrastructure, removing a key limitation on round-the-clock tokenized finance products.
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Sources: Blockchain.news (May 2026); CryptoSlate (May 24, 2026); CryptoRank.io; CoinMarketCap Academy (May 21, 2026); Gadgets360 (May 2026)
