Hana Bank issued a $100 million, five-year foreign-currency digital bond through Euroclear’s Digital Financial Market Infrastructure, or D-FMI, on Sept. 18, the bank announced three days later. The transaction marked South Korea’s first direct use by a financial institution of Euroclear’s blockchain-based infrastructure for a digital-bond issuance.
The deal places a conventional institutional bond transaction onto distributed-ledger infrastructure for core issuance and settlement functions, while preserving a connection to Euroclear’s established settlement network. That structure allowed institutional investors to access the bond through their existing Euroclear accounts and trading systems.
Hana Bank’s $100 million D-FMI issuance
Hana Bank said it completed the five-year foreign-currency issuance on Sept. 18 through Euroclear’s D-FMI platform. The announced size was $100 million.
According to Yonhap News Agency, it was the first time a South Korean financial institution had directly used Euroclear’s blockchain-based D-FMI for a digital-bond transaction. The distinction concerns the infrastructure selected for the issuance, rather than simply the bond’s digital designation.
Euroclear’s D-FMI was used as the operating environment for the transaction’s digital processes. The issuance shows how an institution can use distributed-ledger infrastructure in a bond workflow without requiring investors to abandon the account and trading arrangements they already use.
T+0 processing across the bond lifecycle
Issuance, registration, allocation and payment settlement were processed on distributed-ledger infrastructure, CoinDesk reported. Those functions span the move from creating the security through assigning it to investors and completing payment settlement.
The structure enabled T+0 settlement, meaning settlement on the transaction date. CoinDesk contrasted that timing with a conventional cycle of three to five business days.
For this issuance, the practical test was not limited to recording the bond on a ledger. It covered the linked operational stages of registration, allocation and payment settlement on the same distributed-ledger infrastructure, with same-day settlement as the stated outcome.
Hana Bank’s $100 million digital bond issuance using Euroclear’s D-FMI platform. — Source: Newspim / Hana Bank
Euroclear connectivity keeps institutional access unchanged
The digital bond remained connected to Euroclear’s conventional settlement network, so institutional investors could use their existing Euroclear accounts and trading systems rather than a separate access route, according to CoinDesk.
Issuance and post-trade processes used D-FMI’s distributed-ledger infrastructure, while investor access remained tied to Euroclear’s conventional network.
Standard Chartered’s role in structuring and distribution
Standard Chartered was the sole lead manager, handling structuring, issuance and distribution, according to Hana Bank’s announcement as reported by Newspim; the supplied reports disclosed no further distribution details or investor information.
