Dutch banking giant ABN Amro has successfully issued a digital green bond, raising €5 million in capital by leveraging Polygon’s layer 2 Ethereum scaling technology. The bond, issued as an ERC3643 token, was facilitated through Tokeny’s platform, which harnesses Polygon’s capabilities to empower financial institutions in managing and issuing securities and financial instruments.
Funding for Sustainable Real Estate
ABN AMRO directed the €5 million funding to real estate investor Vesteda, which plans to utilize the capital to refinance “green assets” in alignment with its green finance framework. Green bonds serve as a means to secure funds dedicated to sustainable projects and companies that contribute positively to environmental objectives.
Innovative Digital Bond Framework
The green bond issuance by ABN AMRO involved DekaBank taking ownership of tokens equivalent to its €5 million investment upon payment. The bank employs Fireblocks for private key management in the digital bond process. ABN AMRO has previously explored digital bonds, including acquiring and reselling a digital bond from the European Investment Bank (EIB).
Future of Digital Bonds
Olivier Aartsen, Head of Debt Capital Markets at ABN AMRO, expressed the bank’s intention to support multiple digital bond offerings in the future. ABN Amro’s digital asset lead, Martijn Siebrand, highlighted the benefits of using the ERC3643 standard, emphasizing its capacity to embed compliance rules into digital bonds and enable seamless and compliant interactions with other applications on the public network.
Blockchain Technology Gains Traction in Finance
This move by ABN Amro underscores the growing trend among mainstream financial institutions to leverage blockchain technology for various digital bond use cases. Siemens made headlines with a $64 million digital bond in February 2023, while the European Investment Bank issued a blockchain-based digital bond in June 2023, supported by environmentally-incentivized node infrastructure.
Future of Digital Bond Trading
The European Investment Bank’s digital bond platform, developed in collaboration with Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB) and Credit Agricole CIB, aims to facilitate the issuance, trading, and settlement of bonds in a digital format. This signifies a growing shift toward digitization and innovation in the traditional bond market.
