Regulation· ★★★· neutral·

NatWest reportedly scales back US and European government bond activity, joins UK blockchain gilt pilot

  • —NatWest Markets held about £79.5 billion in primary liquidity securities as of June 30, 2026, mostly government and SSA bonds
  • —The bank returned to full private ownership in May 2025 after the government's stake peaked at 84.4%
  • —On October 6, 2026, HM Treasury named NatWest one of six joint lead managers for the DIGIT pilot
  • —The digital gilt is scheduled for issuance in Q1 2027 on a distributed ledger platform supplied by HSBC
Why it matters: A major bank helping issue sovereign debt natively on blockchain is a key test case for tokenized government debt as a bridge between TradFi and crypto infrastructure.
Source: Crypto Briefing
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