Bank of England Selects 18 Companies for Groundbreaking Synchronisation Lab

The Bank of England has announced 18 leading financial organizations selected to participate in its innovative Synchronisation Lab, launching this spring for a six-month pilot program that could reshape how digital assets settle in central bank money.

The initiative builds on the success of Project Meridian, which demonstrated how tokenization and distributed ledger technology (DLT) can enable atomic settlement using central bank money. Now, the Synchronisation Lab will validate these concepts in real-world scenarios across ten distinct use cases.

What is the Synchronisation Lab?

The Lab provides a simulated environment where prospective “synchronisation operators” can demonstrate how they would interact with RT2, the Bank’s renewed Real-Time Gross Settlement system. The goal: coordinate settlement between central bank money and assets on external ledgers, ensuring transactions either complete fully or fail entirely.

This capability addresses a fundamental challenge in digital finance: how to settle tokenized assets against traditional payment systems without counterparty risk.

Ten Diverse Use Cases

The selected projects span a remarkable range of financial applications:

Securities Settlement

• Baton Systems, Ctrl Alt, and Monee will test delivery-versus-payment for tokenized securities, including HM Treasury’s Digital Gilt instrument
• LSEG will demonstrate its Digital Settlement House platform for multi-bank transactions

Cross-Border Payments

• Swift and Partior will test payment-versus-payment for spot FX transactions
• Baton Systems and LSEG will also explore FX settlement scenarios

Real Estate Transactions

• NPTN (LMS) and PEXA will demonstrate synchronized property purchases and remortgages, integrating with HM Land Registry

Collateral Management

• ClearToken and Partior will test secured financing and intraday repo facilities
• OSTTRA and Tokenovate will focus on conditional margin payments for derivatives

Digital Money Infrastructure

• Atumly and Nuvante will test issuance and redemption flows for stablecoins and other digital money forms

Corporate Treasury

• Quant will demonstrate liquidity rebalancing across multiple bank accounts for non-financial corporations

Platform Solutions

• Transpact, LSEG, and GBTD will test multi-purpose orchestration platforms
• Chainlink and UAC Labs will provide decentralized synchronization solutions

Why This Matters

The Lab represents a critical step toward integrating tokenized assets into the mainstream financial system. Unlike traditional securities settlement that takes days, synchronization enables instant, risk-free settlement.

Victoria Cleland, Executive Director for Banking, Payments, and Innovation at the Bank of England, emphasized that the Lab will help validate design choices while demonstrating synchronization’s flexibility across multiple asset classes.

The initiative also positions the UK as a hub for financial innovation, showing strong industry commitment to next-generation payment infrastructure.

Timeline and Next Steps

After receiving a strong wave of applications in late 2025, the Bank selected participants who will now have approximately two months to build prototypes before the Lab launches in spring 2026. The six-month program will culminate in an industry showcase where participants present their findings.

The Bank will publish a comprehensive report summarizing key learnings that will inform the production rollout of RTGS synchronization capabilities.

Notably, participation isn’t limited to banks with RTGS accounts. DLT operators and their users can also participate, though initially in a simulated environment. The Lab operates as a non-live platform and won’t support real-money payments.

Integration with Broader Initiatives

The Synchronisation Lab complements other Bank of England innovation programs, particularly the Digital Securities Sandbox. DSS firms exploring the issuance, trading, and settlement of digital securities can now test settlement in sterling central bank money through the Lab.

This interconnected approach demonstrates the Bank’s systematic strategy for modernizing financial market infrastructure while managing risk appropriately.

The Road Ahead

Success in the Lab could pave the way for production deployment of synchronization capabilities in the renewed RTGS system. This would give the UK a significant advantage in the global race to integrate blockchain technology with traditional financial infrastructure.

As tokenized assets gain traction globally, the ability to settle them seamlessly against central bank money could become a critical competitive advantage for financial centers.

The participating organizations represent a who’s who of financial innovation: established infrastructures like LSEG and Swift working alongside fintech pioneers like Chainlink and Atumly. This collaboration between traditional finance and digital-native firms may prove to be the Lab’s most valuable outcome.

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