ABN AMRO registers first digital bond on public blockchain

Announcements

ABN AMRO has become the first bank in Europe to register a digital bond for a Midcorp client on the public blockchain. Issued to a select group of investors, the groundbreaking bond raised EUR 450,000 on behalf of aircraft part-out company APOC, one of the bank’s commercial clients.

The entire process of preparing, placing and documenting the bond was digital. Ownership was recorded on the blockchain in the form of tokens that the investors acquired after they had paid for the bond. To ensure custody and security of the investors’ unique keys, ABN AMRO uses a wallet for accessing the digital bond.

ABN AMRO had gained previous experience with digital bonds when it purchased a digital bond from the European Investment Bank (EIB) for reselling. The bank can now draw on that knowledge for client propositions, with APOC being the first.

APOC’s CEO Max Lutje Wooldrik commented, “APOC is a tech- and data-driven company, and the digital bond issued by ABN AMRO is a perfect match.”

ABN AMRO’s Chief Strategy & Innovation Edwin van Bommel added, “This updated digital solution for providing our medium-sized and larger commercial clients with leveraged financing fills a gap between traditional bonds and crowdfunding. Thanks to the blockchain, it’s highly efficient and very client-friendly.”

Work is already underway at ABN AMRO for further digital bonds in Germany and in the Netherlands. These bonds will be issued for institutional clients.

For this issuance, ABN AMRO engaged the services of Bitbond and Fireblocks for the digital wallet.