According to CoinMeta, the UK government has appointed Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Morgan Stanley, National Westminster Bank, and RBC Capital Markets as the joint lead banks for the issuance of the first digital-native government bond digit, which is expected to be launched in the first quarter of 2027. These six banks will digit issue the bonds through a platform within the UK's digital securities sandbox to test the application of distributed ledger technology in bond issuance and throughout their lifecycle. Lucy Rigby, the UK Treasury's Economic Secretary, stated that this project explores the use of distributed ledger technology in the sovereign debt market and promotes the development of the UK's digital financial infrastructure. HSBC was appointed as the provider of distributed ledger technology for this pilot in February and reached an agreement with the London Stock Exchange Group in July to develop a digital securities depository institution connection solution.