The new tokenised notes are the first product of its kind not only in China but also the whole Asia Pacific region constituted under Hong Kong and Swiss laws and tokenised on the main Ethereum blockchain
The Bank of China’s investment banking arm, BOCI, has issued CNH 200 million fully digital structured tokenised security notes on the main Ethereum blockchain in Hong Kong originated by UBS.
By issuing these digital securities, both BOCI and UBS have taken new steps in the direction of applicable law and blockchain types. This transaction has successfully introduced regulated securities onto a public blockchain in Hong Kong and placed them to UBS clients in Asia Pacific.
The creation of an innovative financial product marks a long-term collaboration between BOCI and UBS in the space of digitally structured notes. Previously, the UBS London branch had issued a $50 million tokenised fixed rate note in December under English and Swiss law. It was digitised on a permissioned blockchain and designed specifically for high-net-worth individuals and family offices in Hong Kong and Singapore.
The Swiss wealth manager started experimenting with blockchain a few years ago. At that time, UBS offered more than 100 institutional clients access to a pilot program to tokenize real assets such as debt, structured products, and physical gold. Today, UBS continues to expand its tokenization services across structured products, fixed income, and repo financing through UBS Tokenize.
“We are pleased to work with BOCI on this transaction to bring structured products onto a public blockchain network, supporting our APAC clients’ increasing interest in fully regulated digital asset products,” said Aurelian Troendle, Global Head of MTN Trading at UBS AG and added that: “High-frequency issuance activity can benefit from vast efficiency gains through the use of blockchain technology, which will ultimately bring advantages to investors. UBS is excited to work with issuers like BOCI to broaden our client offering through our tokenization capabilities.”
We have previously reported that UBS expects to finalize its takeover of Credit Suisse as early as June 12, emerging from this rescue deal as a giant Swiss bank with a balance sheet of $1.6 trillion.
