Discussion paper: Tokenisation in financial markets

December 2025 update

Our extended consultation period for the Tokenisation in financial markets discussion paper closed on Friday 14 November 2025.

We received over 20 submissions from a wide range of market participants and other interested parties, including businesses, exchanges, fund managers, banks, law firms and industry groups. We are busy now reviewing and summarising the helpful and insightful comments and observations.

We aim to publish thematic insights in the first calendar quarter of 2026 and indicate the direction of travel for our focus in this area.

September 2025

We are seeking to open a dialogue about the current use and future potential of tokenisation in New Zealand’s financial markets. 

Tokens are a subset of virtual assets, which are intangible assets that are created, traded and stored often on a programmable, distributed or centralised ledger. Tokenisation typically refers to issuing a token using distributed ledger technology to separately represent ownership of real-world assets. However, digital tokens themselves may be the sole asset, i.e. there is no link to a real-world asset. 

Internationally, tokenisation is increasingly being used in financial markets in offerings of financial products and instruments to retail and wholesale investors.

To help us consider what the FMA could do to support innovation, improve regulatory certainty, and enhance consumer protection, we are seeking views on three main areas relating to financial markets: 

• How is the current market and regulatory environment helping or hindering domestic tokenisation activity in financial markets? 
• What benefits or risks do you see for tokenisation for New Zealand financial markets? 
• What should or could the future market and regulatory environment look like? 

The paper provides an overview of the current environment relating to tokenisation, and discussion topics and questions about areas we are interested in. Have your say by 31 October 2025. 

Download the Tokenisation in financial markets discussion paper [PDF 507KB]