History. 2 of 5. Read as a financial year, the Hong Kong date was met, which would make it 3 of 5.
Hunch. The Treasury has now picked both its technology supplier and its banks, and the minister herself points to issuance early next year. Editorial scoring note: Count five issuance cases, not five distinct governments. Under the announced calendar-year convention two of five met their deadline. Using the Hong Kong financial-year convention would instead yield three of five. The separate 90-day outcome is not scored here.
The issue market resolves on HM Treasury announcements on the DIGIT page of GOV.UK and on Debt Management Office notices: YES if DIGIT is issued to investors by the end of 31 March 2027, NO if not, including if the sale is delayed. BBC News and The Guardian are the backup.
We looked for cases where a government named a date for the first sale of a new kind of debt, either a new form of bond or a bond on new technology. We found five: three in the UK, one in Hong Kong and one in Thailand. Two came by the date and three missed it.