[NEW] Bank of China subsidiary BOCI issues first tokenized securities in Hong Kong

BOCI, an investment bank under the Bank of China, has successfully issued a 200 million yuan (approximately 4 billion yen) digital structured bond. Swiss financial giant UBS announced this on the 12th. According to the announcement, BOCI is the first Chinese financial institution to issue a digital structured bond in Hong Kong.

The digital structured bond was structured by UBS and sold to clients in the Asia-Pacific region. The announcement said that this initiative "demonstrates the long-term partnership between BOCI and UBS."

In December last year, UBS issued a $50 million (approximately 7 billion yen) tokenized fixed-income bond digitized on a permissioned blockchain under British and Swiss law. The issuance of this fixed-income bond marks a new step for BOCI and UBS.

According to the announcement, this is the first commodity-regulated security in the Asia-Pacific region to be tokenized on the Ethereum mainnet, and the transaction was conducted under Hong Kong and Swiss law.

Regarding the issuance of this digital structured bond, BOCI Deputy CEO Ying Wang commented, "We are pleased to be at the forefront of innovation in technology finance and digital finance."

He added, "Together with USB, we will drive the simplification of digital asset markets and products for customers in the Asia-Pacific region through the development of blockchain-based digital products designed specifically for our customers in the region. We are encouraged by the evolution of Hong Kong's digital economy and are committed to promoting the digital transformation and innovative development of Hong Kong's financial industry."

In addition, Aurelian Troendle, Global Head of MTN Trading at UBS, said, "By issuing (digital securities) at a high frequency, we can benefit from significant efficiency gains using blockchain, ultimately benefiting investors," suggesting that he will continue to work with BOCI.

Currently, Hong Kong is accelerating its efforts to become a hub for crypto assets (virtual currencies), and interest in the Web 3.0 field is also increasing in relation to this. This month, new cryptocurrency regulations came into effect, legalizing trading for retail investors.

Reference:Announcement
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