HM Treasury announced on 6 October 2026 that it had appointed six firms — Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Morgan Stanley, NatWest and RBC Capital Markets — as joint lead managers for the pilot issuance of DIGIT, the UK's first digitally native government bond. According to the department, the appointments, made through a competitive procurement process, completed procurement and would allow investor engagement to begin.

The DIGIT pilot, which the Treasury said was expected to take place by Q1 2027, was to explore how distributed ledger technology can be applied across the bond's issuance and lifecycle. The lead managers were to provide underwriting, investor engagement support and distribution on issuance day. The Treasury said the instrument was designed to be short-dated, issued on a platform within the Digital Securities Sandbox, deliver on-chain settlement and operate independently of the government's main debt management programme.

Economic Secretary to the Treasury Lucy Rigby KC MP said the appointments marked an important step toward issuance early next year. The announcement followed HSBC's appointment as DLT supplier in February and a July memorandum of understanding between HSBC and LSEG on a bilateral Digital Securities Depository link, the Treasury said.