Iberdrola, the Spanish electricity utility, has closed a €150 million syndicated loan with BBVA and Santander that is managed entirely on a distributed ledger platform built by ioBuilders. Everything from disbursement through interest, repayments and maturity is administered on the shared distributed ledger rather than in each bank’s separate systems, including transfers of loan participations between lenders.
“By combining the advantages of DLT as an immutable record with the programmability of smart contracts to automate operational processes, our ambition is for this platform to become a meeting point that other institutions can join,” said Alberto Falco, Head of Portfolio Monitoring and Innovation at BBVA CIB. The banks plan to onboard further participants and expand the platform’s features.
Syndicated loans are notoriously messy to administer. The agent bank holds the master record and each lender has to track its share of drawdowns, repayments and interest, historically from data that arrived by fax or email, often monthly. That makes them an obvious target for a shared ledger, and this is far from the first attempt. Several platforms have tried since 2018 with mixed results, which raises the question of whether a shared database would do the job just as well. This deal hints at where DLT might earn its keep.
Article continues …
Want the full story? Pro subscribers get complete articles, exclusive industry analysis, and early access to legislative updates that keep you ahead of the competition. Join the professionals who are choosing deeper insights over surface level news.
