The DSS will change laws in the UK to allow players in the financial markets to trade and settle digital assets like bonds and shares using new technologies, like distributed ledger technology.

Under those amended rules, successful DSS applicants will be permitted to run a trading venue and offer securities depository and settlement services. They will be able to offer these services from a single legal body for the first time.

For the first five years of the sandbox's testing, the government has already received 19 expressions of interest from banks, new entrants, and established financial market infrastructures.

Now that they have been given permission to begin operations, the Bank of England and the FCA have released draft guidelines for these companies that include information on how the Bank intends to permit them to grow as they go.

Now is the time for interested parties to offer their opinions on how the sandbox should function in real life.

"The Digital Securities Sandbox is an important tool for regulators to learn how we need to react to safely benefit from developments in technology and changes to vital financial market processes such as securities settlement," states Sasha Mills, executive director, financial market infrastructure, BofE.

"The new Digital Securities Sandbox reshapes how we regulate by allowing firms to test regulatory changes using real world situations before these changes are made permanent," says Sheldon Mills, executive director, FCA, consumers and competition. We anticipate that this will be a speedier, more cooperative, and more efficient method of implementing regulatory change."