Digital Securities Sandbox
A UK regulatory regime that lets firms run live digital securities infrastructure under temporarily modified rules.
The Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS) was established in the UK by the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority. It allows firms to operate real market infrastructure — such as a central securities depository or trading venue — using new technology, with certain legal requirements adjusted.
Unlike a test environment, the DSS involves live activity with real assets, under limits that rise as participants demonstrate readiness. The regulators use what they learn to inform permanent changes to legislation.
The DSS sits alongside other jurisdictions' approaches, most notably the EU's DLT Pilot Regime, which similarly offers time-limited exemptions for DLT-based market infrastructure. Together they illustrate a regulatory pattern: allow controlled live use first, then codify.
In practice
- Participants in the DSS can issue, trade and settle digital securities under the regime's staged limits.
- The EU DLT Pilot Regime provides a comparable framework for DLT market infrastructures across member states.
Primary sources
- Digital Securities Sandbox ↗Bank of England
Related concepts
All concepts
An independent TokenShares explainer. Informational only; the cited publications are the authoritative sources.