Building the Future of Money: Collaboration, Tokenisation, and the Search for Real Use Cases
At the Payments Canada Summit, a cross-border keynote conversation — with Jana Mackintosh, Managing Director of Payments & Innovation at UK Finance, in dialogue with Shawn Van Raay, Chief Technology and Operations Officer (CTOO) of Payments Canada — explored the evolving landscape of digital money, tokenised deposits, and the future of payment ecosystems. Van Raay's moderation, anchored from the seat of the rail operator itself, drew out a UK Finance perspective that revealed an industry actively building infrastructure — yet still searching for the defining use cases that will drive adoption.
From the outset, the role of industry bodies in shaping this future was clearly articulated. Mackintosh explained that UK Finance's work goes beyond policy-making: "We actually take those policies and we implement them in practice… we write code, we write standards, but we also expect our companies sometimes to put things into production." Importantly, this work is conducted not as a regulator, but in close collaboration with the broader ecosystem: "Not a regulated organisation, not a government body, but we work very closely with industry and all other stakeholders."
Tokenised Deposits: Familiar Money, New Infrastructure
A central focus of the panel was the development of tokenised deposits. Framed in simple terms, the concept was described as "just commercial bank money with the DLT wrapper around it." Rather than introducing entirely new forms of money, the initiative seeks to modernize existing bank deposits through distributed ledger technology.
After four years of exploration, the UK-led initiative has moved into live experimentation. The platform, developed in collaboration with six to seven major financial institutions, is now enabling real transactions to test interoperability and fungibility across participants. As Mackintosh noted, "We're now building a platform that will run live transactions… to test the fungibility of those tokenised deposits between the financial institutions."
This work is grounded in a broader belief in coexistence across financial systems: "We do truly believe in a multi-money ecosystem… all of these forms of money coexist and roll behind each other." The platform itself spans both retail and wholesale use cases, initially focused on the domestic market to build a strong foundation before expanding globally.
Interoperability Over Replacement
A recurring theme throughout the discussion was the necessity of interoperability. New systems are not expected to replace existing infrastructure, but rather to integrate with it. As emphasized during the panel, "Anything new that you introduce into the ecosystem… needs to seamlessly coexist alongside the other really great capabilities that we do have."
Existing rails — including real-time payments, batch systems, and ATM networks — continue to serve critical roles and are expected to remain in place for the foreseeable future. The challenge, therefore, is not technological feasibility but coordination: "Now I know that's easier said than done, but it's not impossible. Technology allows you to do that."
Customer Expectations: Trust Over Technology
While much of the discussion centered on infrastructure, the panel also highlighted the importance of customer experience. End users, it was noted, are largely indifferent to the underlying technology. Instead, they prioritize reliability and accountability: "They don't understand the technology… they just want to trust the content… and they want to know that if something goes wrong, they'll have a way to fix that problem."
This perspective reinforces the need for innovation that remains invisible to the user while delivering tangible improvements in trust and usability.
From Faster Payments to Smarter Workflows
The panel outlined several practical use cases currently being tested on the platform:
- Fraud prevention emerged as a key priority, with a shift from reactive to proactive approaches: the goal is to "better manage, protect, prevent the problem… and really stop focusing just on reversion."
- Mortgage processing is another area of focus, where tokenisation and programmability can simplify complex workflows. As described, "It's not about the speed of the payment per se, but it is about the simplification of the speed of the entire journey." By embedding conditions and transparency into transactions, the technology can significantly reduce friction in traditionally cumbersome processes.
- Capital markets: The tokenisation of bonds represents a further evolution, particularly when combined with on-chain payments. This integration allows both asset and payment to exist within the same system, unlocking "real benefits in terms of operational efficiency, liquidity, and the level of quality."
Despite exploring hundreds of potential applications, the panel acknowledged that no single dominant use case has yet emerged. Instead, the platform is intentionally flexible: "It's for the industry to decide what you want to do with the platform… your business case, your customers, your decision."
Commercial Realities and Strategic Tensions
Underlying all innovation efforts is the question of economic viability. As one speaker emphasized, "There has to be incentives for anyone to innovate… there are commercial benefits… unlocking new revenue rules, reducing costs."
At the same time, different forms of digital money introduce strategic considerations. Stablecoins, for example, may shift liquidity away from traditional banking systems, while tokenised deposits aim to retain it. This creates a dynamic tension between innovation and balance sheet management.
Banks, in this context, see their role less as direct innovators and more as enablers: "We don't necessarily innovate ourselves… we have to be able to unlock the benefits of innovation that other people would have gone to market."
Government initiatives, such as the issuance of tokenised gilts in the UK, further reinforce this direction by providing institutional momentum and real-world validation.
An Industry-Led Future — Still Taking Shape
As the session concluded, a defining characteristic of the current phase became clear: collaboration. The ecosystem is intentionally non-competitive at the infrastructure level, with stakeholders working together to build shared platforms. "It's always more collaborative… we want to collaborate, we want to do it all together, we want to move together."
Yet this collaborative approach also leaves critical questions open. The infrastructure is being built, but its ultimate applications remain undecided. Adoption, the panel stressed, will not be driven by regulation but by real-world demand: "It's not regulatory driven… it's driven by the industry."
In a closing remark that drew light laughter, the moderator noted the limited mention of one of the most transformative forces shaping technology today: "We didn't say the word AI a bunch of times… but AI, AI, AI."
The comment underscored a subtle but important gap. While the financial system is rapidly becoming more programmable, the role of artificial intelligence — and particularly autonomous agents — in that system is only beginning to enter the conversation.
Key Takeaways
- Tokenised deposits = "commercial bank money with a DLT wrapper." Not a new form of money — modernized infrastructure for existing deposits.
- UK Finance has worked on this for 4 years; now testing live with 6–7 major banks.
- The vision is multi-money coexistence, not replacement of existing rails.
- Real use cases under test: fraud prevention, mortgage workflows, tokenised bond + on-chain payment.
- Stablecoins risk pulling liquidity out of banks; tokenised deposits aim to keep it in.
- The dominant use case hasn't emerged yet — the platform is intentionally flexible.
- AI was conspicuously absent from the deposit conversation — a gap to watch.
