UK Names Tokenization Champion to Boost Wholesale Finance Efficiency

Tokenization involves representing traditional financial assets as digital tokens on a blockchain, a development the Treasury expects will enhance efficiency, competitiveness and broader adoption of digital assets.

The appointment is part of a wider package of reforms aimed at modernizing the UK’s payments regulation. The government wants to make the country the leading destination for fintechs to launch, scale, list and remain, as it seeks to maintain its edge in a rapidly evolving global digital asset landscape. UK fintech attracted $3.6bn in investment across 534 deals in 2025, securing second place globally behind the US.

Public, private heritage

Woolard, a partner at EY where he advises on financial regulation, strategy and fintech while leading the firm’s UK fintech practice, welcomed the role. He stressed the importance of collaboration between public and private sectors to drive the next "digital big bang" for UK markets.

This public-private balance mirrors his career. Before EY, he spent more than eight years at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), serving as interim chief executive and board member. He also led the FCA’s review of innovation in the unsecured credit market. Earlier positions include service on the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee and Prudential Regulation Committee, director of Ofcom (the UK's communication regulator) and deputy director of the BBC Trust. He began his career in the civil service.

Integrating tokenization with traditional finance

The reforms will bring electronic money fully into the UK’s financial services regulatory framework. The objective is a single coherent regime covering both traditional and tokenized payments, including stablecoins – digital tokens designed to maintain a stable value, often pegged to fiat currencies such as the dollar or pound.

Further regulation, and potentially legislation, will address stablecoin use in payments while cutting unnecessary friction. The Treasury is also exploring rules for payments executed by AI agents. Woolard noted that upcoming consultations will reform payment services and electronic money rules to support tokenized payments, unlock Open Banking potential and enable safe AI agent adoption.

Lucy Rigby MP, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, said the package advances a secure, competitive payments' ecosystem capable of harnessing rapid technological change.

Consultation, industry reaction

A public consultation on the proposals is expected to launch soon. Industry figures have broadly welcomed the moves, with one observer describing the combination of a unified framework and Woolard’s appointment as sending "exactly the right signal to international markets."