News linked to both this project and an event.
the UK plans to issue its first digital sovereign bond by early 2027, becoming the first G7 country to issue government debt on a distributed ledger. The bond will be listed on HSBC’s Orion platform and included in the digital securities sandbox of the Bank of England (BoE) and the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to test shorter settlement times and lower costs. BoE Governor Andrew Bailey stated that the BoE plans to make the bond eligible as collateral for market operations, allowing banks to use the bond in central bank funding transactions.
According to the Seoul Economic Daily, KB Kookmin Bank announced the issuance of a USD 100 million blockchain-based digital bond in the Hong Kong market, marking the first time a Korean bank has applied blockchain technology to an actual foreign-currency financing transaction. This issuance reduces the settlement cycle from the traditional five business days to three business days, helping streamline processes and lower counterparty settlement risk. The two-year USD digital bond was issued privately, with HSBC serving as the sole bookrunner; the issuance process was completed via HSBC’s digital asset platform, Orion.