Today Societe Generale announced it issued a €5 million structured product as a security token on the Tezos public blockchain. As with previous blockchain pilots, the asset was acquired by a group company, Societe Generale Assurance, in this case. The token was for a medium term auto callable note.
Societe Generale – Forge is the regulated subsidiary that carried out this and other blockchain pilots and today stated it plans to launch a service to professional clients by 2022. That will include crypto asset structuring, issuing, exchange and custody services.
The organization was one of the first major banks to use a public blockchain in 2019 when it issued a €100 million covered bond on Ethereum. This was followed last year by a €40 million covered bond settled with central bank digital currency (CBDC) issued by the Banque de France.
The banks says this demonstrates the legal, regulatory and operational feasibility of using public blockchains for more complex token issuances.
In March, French startup Lugh launched a Euro stablecoin, also on the Tezos blockchain, with the bank deposits held by Societe Generale.
The bank is running one of eight consortia that are experimenting with the Banque de France for a wholesale CBDC. As part of the tests it’s working with Tezos development house Nomadic Labs, Ethereum developer ConsenSys, and several other organizations.
Societe Generale has numerous enterprise blockchain activities as well. It’s using the Paxos Settlement Service for U.S. equity transactions and invested in Liquidshare the post-trade solution for SME stocks.
In trade finance, SocGen is a member of both we.trade and komgo and a participant in VAKT the post-trade solution for oil.
