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Banks bosses told to brace for ‘dual–running’ costs in tokenization push

James Kemp, Managing Director, Technology & Operations, AFME and Christopher Woolard CBE, Whole sale Digital Markets Champion at AFME OPTIC 2026
James Kemp, Managing Director, Technology & Operations, AFME and Christopher Woolard CBE, Wholesale Digital Markets Champion. Photo: Jean Hurley/GRIP

​Christopher Woolard CBE says shifting wholesale finance onto distributed ledgers is a boardroom survival question, not IT cost–cutting.

​Financial institutions must be prepared to weather years of expensive “dual-running” technology costs or risk losing their place in global capital markets, the UK’s wholesale digital markets champion said on Tuesday.

​Speaking at the AFME OPTIC 2026 conference in London, Christopher Woolard CBE – appointed by the Treasury to spearhead

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