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A new report from the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) and Luxembourg for Finance argues that tokenisation in financial services is moving beyond the experimental phase and into real-world deployment across multiple asset classes.
The report, titled “Tokenisation frameworks: designs for a new era,” examines how blockchain-based tokenisation is being applied in practice, what legal structures underpin it and what barriers remain before the technology can achieve wider adoption.
After several years of largely exploratory activity, the findings suggest the financial services industry is entering a more substantive phase of blockchain innovation, with institutions actively deploying tokenised assets rather than simply testing them.
Not All Tokenisation Is Created Equal
A central theme of the report is the legal reality behind tokenised assets, specifically the question of what rights a token actually confers to its holder.
The authors argue that these distinctions, while often subtle, are critical to understanding how tokenisation functions in practice. Different forms of tokenisation carry different legal implications depending on the asset class and the jurisdiction in which they operate.
The report analyses these variations across a range of asset classes, outlining both the potential benefits and the legal frameworks that enable tokenisation activity. It aims to provide clarity on how these structures are evolving as institutions move closer to full-scale implementation.
Regulatory Uncertainty Around Public Blockchains
While the report points to real progress, it also identifies challenges that continue to hold back broader adoption.
Regulatory uncertainty around the use of public and permissionless blockchains by commercial banks stands out as a significant constraint. The question of whether regulated financial institutions can operate on open blockchain networks, and under what conditions, remains unresolved in many jurisdictions.
This ambiguity has implications for how quickly tokenisation can scale, particularly in areas where interoperability between different blockchain networks and traditional financial infrastructure is required.
Potential To Reshape Financial Markets
Looking forward, the report explores how tokenisation could reshape financial markets in several ways.
These include expanding retail access to asset classes that have traditionally been restricted to institutional investors, introducing new models for institutional funding and enabling programmability in areas such as sustainable debt instruments.
Programmable financial instruments, where conditions and obligations can be encoded directly into the token, represent one of the more closely watched areas of development. In the context of sustainable finance, for example, tokenisation could allow debt instruments to automatically enforce environmental or social commitments built into their terms.
Industry Perspective
Tom Theobald, Chief Executive Officer at Luxembourg for Finance, framed the report as a contribution to a more informed discussion around the technology’s trajectory.
“This report contributes to a more informed and constructive dialogue on developments in tokenisation,” Theobald noted. “The findings reflect both the progress that has already been achieved and the challenges that remain.”
He pointed to a clear direction emerging from the research.
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“They also point to a clear direction of travel: tokenisation is set to play a central role in the future of financial services,” he added.
Luxembourg’s Positioning
Luxembourg has been positioning itself as a hub for digital finance activity in Europe, and the partnership between Luxembourg for Finance and OMFIF on this report reflects that broader strategy.
OMFIF, which operates as an independent think tank for central banking, economic policy and public investment, has been tracking developments in digital assets and tokenisation as part of its broader research agenda across global financial markets.
What Comes Next
The report arrives at a time when regulators in multiple jurisdictions are grappling with how to accommodate tokenised assets within existing legal and supervisory frameworks. The European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) has begun to take effect, while other regions continue to develop their own approaches.
For financial institutions, the question is no longer whether tokenisation has potential, but how quickly the regulatory and legal infrastructure can evolve to support its deployment at scale.
The full report is available at pdf.omfif.org.
Last Updated on April 3, 2026 by Nick Ross
