The World Bank “has mandated the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) as the sole arranger of the first bond globally to be created, allocated, transferred and managed through its life cycle using distributed ledger technology.”
Investor interest in bond-i has been significant and the World Bank and CBA will lauch the transaction after a consulting with more investors.
According to the World Bank’s press statement, blockchain technology can “streamline processes among numerous debt capital market intermediaries and agents” making it easy to raise capital, trade securities, enhance operational efficiencies, and improving regulatory oversight.
The CBA Blockchain Centre of Excellence built and developed the bond-i blockchain platform.
Arunma Oteh, World Bank Treasurer, said:
“Today, we believe that emerging technologies, equally offer transformative, yet prudent possibilities for us to continue to innovate, respond to investor needs and strengthen markets. We are therefore delighted that after working with our information technology colleagues and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia over several months, that we are now in a position to launch our first blockchain bond transaction. CBA’s commitment and Microsoft’s wealth of experience have been instrumental to achieving this historic milestone.
James Wall, Executive General Manager of International, CBA said: “We take a collaborative approach to innovating and have a track record of partnering with other leading financial institutions, government bodies and corporates to innovate through blockchain. We believe that this transaction will be ground breaking as a demonstration of how blockchain technology can act as a facilitating platform for different participants.”
