$112 Million: French Banking Giant Societe Generale Issues Massive Euro Bond on Ethereum
By CCN.com: The blockchain bug seems to have bitten French banking giant Societe Generale to a point of no return. A little over a year ago, the third largest bank in France by assets unveiled a blockchain-based trade finance platform for all its corporate clients, the we.trade platform.
Now Societe Generale has found another use case for blockchain technology – bond issuance.
In a statement, the giant lender has revealed that its covered bond unit, Societe General SFH, has issued its first covered bond on the Ethereum blockchain worth over $110 million. The security tokens have been awarded a triple A rating by Fitch and Moody’s.
Societe Generale: Faster and Cheaper Bond Issuance
Per the statement, this was an experiment aimed at developing ‘new digital capital market activities’. Among the benefits Societe Generale expects to derive from issuing bonds on a blockchain include ‘product scalability and reduced time to market’.
Additionally, transparency and settlement speeds will be enhanced while reducing costs and cutting the number of intermediaries.
While the security tokens are backed by particular assets, they will remain on the balance sheet of the giant lender. The pilot project was led by an internal startup known as Societe Generale FORGE.
