Leading French bank, Societe Generale, has issued the first covered bond vehicle worth 100 million Euros as a security token on the Ethereum blockchain, the bank announced on April 23.
The issuance, which was made on April 18, is the result of the first pilot program by the bank and Societe Generale FORGE, an internal startup incubator that aids 60 startups. The official statement reads,
This live transaction explores a more efficient process for bond issues. Numerous areas of added value are predicted, from which, product scalability and reduced time to market, and computer code automation structuring, hence better transparency, faster transferability and settlement. It proposes a new standard for derivatives and secondary market bond trading and reduces cost and the number of intermediaries.
PwC France was involved in the launch of the bond, having acted as an adviser for the initiative.
Banks Increasingly Looking to Blockchain Solutions
The World Economic Forum (WEF) released a report that showed over 40 central banks across the world had either employed blockchain solutions or were looking deeply into the matter. The increased efficiency and lowered transactions costs make Decentralized Ledger Technologies (DLTs) an attractive research zone for financial institutions, many of which have taken to Ripple’s technology to achieve the aforementioned benefits.
