Hana Bank, one of South Korea’s major commercial banks, has issued a $100 million digital bond using the Euroclear blockchain.

 

The five-year bond, which was issued using Euroclear's Digital Financial Market Infrastructure, achieved T+0 settlement, with the bond allocations and payments completed on the same day.

 

"The $100 million digital bond issuance and implementation of T+0 settlement represent a significant step beyond simply diversifying our funding channels, as they bring blockchain technology into the capital market," a Hana Bank official said.

 

"We will continue to adopt advanced infrastructure and explore innovative funding solutions that meet the needs of global investors," the official added.

 

With Standard Chartered serving as the sole lead manager overseeing the bond issuance and sale, Hana leverages the fast settlement times of distributed ledger technology, cutting the settlement time from what would typically take 3 to 5 days to complete to less than a day.

 

About Euroclear

 

Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, Euroclear is one of the major global financial market infrastructure (FMI) providers and a leader in central securities depositories (CSDs) and international CSDs (ICSDs).

 

In 2023, it launched its blockchain initiative, the Euroclear blockchain platform (D-FMI), for the primary purpose of facilitating the issuance, distribution, and primary market settlement of fully dematerialised international securities.

 

By leveraging the fast settlement times of blockchain technology, D-FMI allows for same day settlement (T+0) and the issuance and allocation of digital bonds.

 

Since the launch of Euroclear's blockchain platform, several financial institutions have settled and issued digital bonds on it, including the World Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Emirates NBD, Doha Bank, and Akbank.