Dr Ci Ren contributes to the policy development of UK wholesale financial markets
Dr Ren submitted a response to the Financial Conduct Authority and Bank of England Call for Input, The Future of Tokenisation: A Joint Vision from the Authorities for UK Wholesale Financial Markets.
The Call for Input focused on how the UK’s authorities will support the adoption of tokenised securities, and how market infrastructure can facilitate their issuance, trading, settlement and safekeeping.
Dr Ren’s response, jointly submitted with Dr Lerong Lu of the Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London, examined key legal and regulatory issues arising from the tokenisation of financial markets. These included settlement finality, conflict of laws, interoperability between traditional and distributed-ledger infrastructures, customer due diligence and ‘know your customer’ (KYC) requirements, and safeguarding arrangements for investment cryptoassets.
Following the submission, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)/Bank of England invited Dr Ren and Dr Lu to meet its Wholesale Cryptoassets Policy team. The FCA had described their response as ‘very interesting and helpful’ and identified several areas for further discussion, including the use of decentralised-finance protocols by regulated firms, the application of prospectus rules to tokenised securities, the potential use of zero-knowledge proofs for KYC, systemic-risk reduction, reform of the Central Securities Depositories Regulation, and interoperability between different market infrastructures.
At the meeting on 7 July 2026, Dr Ren and Dr Lu discussed these issues with the FCA/Bank of England and explored opportunities for continuing academic-policy engagement. Following the meeting, Matthew Thomson-Ryder, Senior Associate in Wholesale Cryptoassets Policy at the FCA, described the discussion as ‘really insightful’ and expressed an interest in remaining in contact for further policy discussion and collaboration.
The FCA and Bank of England aim to publish a joint response statement and a full cross-authority roadmap later this year.
Dr Ren said:
Tokenisation has the potential to make wholesale financial markets more efficient, transparent and resilient, but technological innovation must be supported by legal certainty and appropriate safeguards. I am delighted that our research generated a constructive discussion with the FCA/Bank of England, particularly on settlement finality, interoperability, investor protection and the responsible use of new technologies for regulatory compliance.
Dr Ren’s engagement with the FCA and the Bank of England provides a strong example of research-led policy contribution and external impact in FinTech law, financial regulation and digital asset governance.
Dr Ren is a member of the Centre for Business Law and Practice.
