Monument Bank has announced plans to tokenize up to £250 million in customer deposits on the public blockchain network developed by Midnight Foundation. The move, which aims to integrate digital asset technology directly into mainstream banking, stands out as one of the first efforts by a UK-regulated institution to bring retail savings fully onto a blockchain platform while maintaining existing consumer safeguards.
Tokenized Savings To Be Fully Backed And Protected
Founded in 2018 and licensed by the Bank of England, Monument Bank focuses on serving the UK’s mass-affluent demographic, managing around £7 billion in deposits from over 100,000 customers. The collaboration with Midnight brings client deposits onto Midnight’s privacy-enhancing blockchain, with each digital token linked directly to pounds held at the bank. The structure lets customers continue earning interest, keeps deposits redeemable in GBP at all times, and ensures coverage under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
Unlike typical crypto platforms, this model keeps blockchain activity behind the scenes for end users. Customers interact only through Monument’s app, avoiding the need to handle private keys or digital wallets. The underlying blockchain infrastructure is designed to provide secure, tamper-proof records and privacy for both customer and bank data.
Midnight Foundation, the developer of the blockchain network, specializes in privacy-led solutions for public networks. Monument’s initiative makes use of Midnight’s architecture by ensuring that transaction details are kept confidential and accessible only to parties involved. This design addresses regulatory requirements for customer privacy while enabling the transparency and efficiency of a public ledger.
Industry Figures Highlight Shift For Regulated Finance
Fahmi Syed, President of Midnight Foundation, pointed to emerging demand among financial institutions to create regulated on-chain products while meeting privacy standards.
Financial institutions around the world are exploring how blockchain infrastructure can support regulated financial products, but one of the persistent challenges has been balancing transparency with the privacy requirements of modern banking.
Monument Bank Founder Mintoo Bhandari emphasized the institution’s focus on bringing advanced solutions to increasingly sophisticated retail clients.
Monument was founded on the promise of bringing the most innovative and valuable financial offerings, safely and securely, to the often overlooked and underserved mass-affluent community in the UK and beyond.
The project distinguishes itself from typical institutional-only tokenization trials by embedding blockchain benefits into standard retail offerings and processes.
Three-Phase Roadmap To Expand Customer Options
Monument has planned a staged rollout. The second phase will make a range of tokenized investment products, such as private equity, commodity funds, and structured offerings, available to customers through its app. Traditionally, these asset classes have only been accessible to institutional or ultra-wealthy investors, but Monument intends to open access to a broader audience without requiring users to interact with crypto assets directly.
Phase three will introduce Lombard-style lending, allowing clients to take out loans using their investments as collateral, rather than liquidating their holdings. Monument CEO Ian Rand has highlighted this step as part of the bank’s ambition to merge advanced product access with standard protections of regulated banking.
By combining these innovative capabilities with our exceptional client-centric service model, and the protections provided by the regulated banking framework of the UK, we are excited to deliver services that help our clients manage, and build, their prosperity.
Daniel Fozzati, founding partner at The Building Blocks, described the project as “a world first by leveraging the UK’s innovation ecosystem.” Research from Boston Consulting Group projects the market for tokenized assets could climb to between $4 trillion and $16 trillion by 2030, providing substantial context for the scale of these developments.
