Spanishmultinational commercial bank Banco Santander has redeemed a $20 million (?15.2m)bond through the Ethereum blockchain.
Accordingto the company, the move intends to make issuing bonds quicker, efficient andsimpler. Santander also said that the bond will remain of the Ethereumblockchain until the end of its one-year maturity.
JohnWhelan, head of digital investment banking at Santander, tweeted on December 10that the company had ‘just performed an early redemption of [its]blockchain-based bond… issued on September 10 2019. This unequivocally provesthat a debt security can be managed through its full lifecycle on a blockchain(public in this case).’
InSeptember, Banco Santander announced that it has issued ?16m worth of bondby itself and one of the Group’s units bought the bond, which carries aquarterly coupon of 1.98%, at market price. At that time too, the Spanishcommercial bank made use of the public Ethereum blockchain that allowed it tosecurely tokenise the bond and later on register it in a permissioned manner onthe blockchain. In order to make this project a successful one, Santander wassupported by Nivaura, a London-based regulated fintech start-up andinternational law firm Allen & Overy.
Last month, NatWest and Coadjute formed a new distributed LEDGER technology consortium which aimed at streamlining the process of buying homes in the UK. According to Forbes report, the process of home buying could be cut down to three weeks from several months through this consortium. Other software providers who are also participating in this consortium are eTech Surveyor Software, Redbrick Solutions Conveyancing Software, LMS Panel Management Software, Search Acumen Property Data, Conveyancing Data Services Property Data and Dezrez Estate Agency Software. By making use of a companion app, this project will aim to offer NatWest customers with 100% transparency over the entire home buying process.
