Hana Bank taps Euroclear blockchain for $100M bond issuance: Report

South Korea’s Hana Bank has reportedly issued a five-year, $100 million digital bond using Euroclear’s blockchain-based platform. 

On Monday, Yonhap News Agency reported that the bank used Euroclear’s Digital Financial Market Infrastructure to issue the foreign-currency bond. The report described the transaction as the first digital bond issuance in South Korea to directly use Euroclear’s blockchain infrastructure. 

According to Yonhap, the bond’s issuance, registration and settlement were processed on a distributed ledger network. Using the technology for bond allocation and payment settlement reportedly shortened the process from three to five business days to the same day. 

The bond also connects to Euroclear’s existing global settlement network, allowing investors to trade it through their existing accounts and trading systems, Yonhap reported. 

Cointelegraph was unable to reach Hana Bank for comment, while Euroclear had not responded to Cointelegraph’s request for comment before publication. 

Euroclear launched its Digital Securities Issuance service in October 2023, settling a 100 million euro ($106 million at the time) digital bond issued by the World Bank’s lending arm, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. That three-year bond raised funds for sustainable development and was listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.