Today UBS Hong Kong said that the Bank of China Investment (BOCI) has issued CNH 200 million ($28m) in digital structure notes on the Ethereum public blockchain. While the issuance was by the international investment subsidiary of the Bank of China, domestically, it is state-owned and China’s second largest bank.
The tokenized securities were issued under Hong Kong and Swiss Law on the UBS Tokenize service.
“BOCI is very pleased to be at the forefront of innovation in technology finance and digital finance,” said Ms Ying Wang, Deputy CEO at BOCI. “Working together with UBS, we are driving the simplification of digital asset markets and products, for customers in Asia Pacific through the development of blockchain-based digital structured products, designed specifically for customers in Asia Pacific.”
“We are encouraged by the evolution of Hong Kong’s digital economy and are committed to promoting the digital transformation and innovative development of Hong Kong’s financial industry.”
Late last year, UBS Wealth Management announced it issued $50 million of blockchain-based debt securities to high net worth individuals (HNWI) based in Hong Kong and Singapore. In that case, it used English and Swiss law and a permissioned version of the Ethereum blockchain.
UBS has been a blockchain trailblazer for some time. It was one of the initiators of the Utility Settlement Coin, which evolved into Fnality, the bank-backed settlement token project readying for launch in the UK.
Last year, the bank also issued its own $370 million blockchain bond on the Swiss Digital Exchange (SDX). That was groundbreaking as the largest native digital security issued to date. Additionally, it was innovative because the central securities depository (CSD) of SDX was linked to the conventional SIX CSD allowing most investors to buy the tokenized securities conventionally.
