Tokenisation & the future of bonds

Tokenisation in debt markets is not just a solution looking for a problem, according to ANZ’s Luke Marriott – but a technological evolution that provides real, tangible efficiency benefits.

Speaking on stage at the 2026 ANZ Debt Conference, Marriott said ANZ’s market-leading work in the space had shown potential for improved “access to liquidity and cheaper borrowing costs” as key benefits the technology would bring to the bond market.

“Is there a problem [in existing markets] today? Potentially not,” he said. “It operates really, really effectively. Can it be better?

“And through those operational efficiencies, and our research, we do think it can be better.”

In March, the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre suggested the size of the “digital finance innovation” opportunity in Australia could be as high as $A24 billion a year, or around 1 per cent of the economy’s gross domestic product. That figure includes $A10 billion a year alone in markets, with efficiency gains from tokenisation “likely to come from improving the performance of high-turnover asset classes”.

Speaking at the conference, Marriott said there were clear benefits from shifting from sequential transactions, transitioning ownership and value, to the synchronous nature provided by tokenisation.

“Off the back of that, you would assume that, from reduced operational costs, borrowing costs and access to capital should be improved,” he said. “And obviously… settlement times certainly decrease through the atomic nature of it.”

Marriott, Head of eFICC Markets at ANZ, made the comments on a panel featuring Robert Porter, Head of Digital Asset Services – Business at ANZ, and Mike Thomson, Head of Austraclear at ANZ. The panel was hosted by Christine Ho, Director, Structured Capital Markets at ANZ.

You can watch edited highlights of the panel on video below.

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Dependency

Marriott said there was some way to go when it came to the bond market fully embracing tokenisation, particularly around legislative certainty. In late 2025, Australia’s federal government announced new laws aimed at unlocking innovation in the digital assets space.

“[The tokenisation opportunity in debt markets] does have dependencies around interoperability,” Marriott said. “Medium of exchange is a very important thing."

Tokenisation has been a key theme in asset markets for some time, particularly after legislation in the United States that makes clear where tokens and stablecoins sit in the broader financial sphere. The US’ GENIUS Act, passed in July, installed a broad regulatory framework around stablecoins in the US, in a bid to foster and protect the roughly $US300 billion global market.

In late 2025, ANZ wrapped up its work on Project Acacia, a Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre’s (DFCRC) research program, aimed at understanding how “different forms of digital money and digital assets could add economic benefit,” Porter told the conference.

Part of ANZ’s contribution explored the use of wholesale central-bank digital currency as a form of tokenised money in the settlement of fixed-income assets. Austraclear, the ASX’s settlement system, worked as an advisor on the project.

That part of the project was a success, Porter said.

“We have successfully done the primary issuance in a simulated fashion,” he said. “Tokenised the bond, tokenised bank money, used central bank money to settle, per principles of financial market infrastructure, and automated the coupon process. And we think that shows great promise.”

Inevitable

Thomson said now it was clear the US was moving toward tokenisation, and momentum continued to grow in Asia, the rest of the world would soon follow.

“I think it is inevitable that, as that market moves… tokenisation will become more and more prevalent globally,” he said. “And as a result, it will reach Australia and be part of our Australian landscape.”

Porter told the conference the domestic market couldn’t afford to ignore what capital markets were doing around the world in the tokenised asset space.

“And while it is a slow, incremental change, it will impact competitiveness,” he said. “And I think is why it's important we keep pace.”

Demand

The rate at which market uptake occurs will ultimately hinge on investor demand, the panel agreed.

Porter said while the rise of tokenisation had led to formal research and experimentation, there was yet to be any “significant institutional adoption just yet”. “But we think that will change,” he said.

He said while there was no overwhelming demand from market participants in isolation, “they do want lower transaction cost, they do want reduced settlement times, and they do want to reduce counterparty risk” – all things the technology hopes to provide.

Thomson agreed, noting that when he spoke to market participants if they felt they needed digital assets, the response was not overwhelming.

“When we look at what's going to drive this evolution, it really will be driven by demand,” he said. “That commercial demand is important.”

For Marriott, that demand is not too far away.

“I think you're going to see investors looking for tokenized assets,” he told the conference. “But I think it will be more investor-led than issuer led.”

The RBA will publish its final report on Project Acacia later in 2026.