Bank of Thailand Launches World's First Government Savings Bond on IBM Blockchain Technology
On October 5, 2020, IBM announced that the Bank of Thailand successfully launched the world’s first blockchain-based platform for government savings bonds, issuing $1.6 billion in just two weeks. This innovative platform, leveraging IBM Cloud, significantly accelerates bond issuance from 15 days to just 2 days, while also reducing operational costs and complexities. Collaborating with eight institutions, the initiative enhances transparency and efficiency in bond transactions. The Bank of Thailand aims to extend this blockchain technology to all government bonds to benefit retail and wholesale investors.
- Successful launch of the world's first blockchain-based platform for government savings bonds.
- Issuance of $1.6 billion in bonds within two weeks demonstrates strong market acceptance.
- Reduction in bond issuance time from 15 days to 2 days enhances liquidity.
- Collaboration with eight institutions showcases strong stakeholder engagement.
- Increased transparency and efficiency across the bond issuance process.
- None.
BANGKOK, Thailand, Oct. 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- SIBOS -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that Bank of Thailand (BOT), the central bank, has successfully launched the world's first blockchain-based platform for government savings bonds issuing a total of
Leveraging blockchain technology on the highly secured IBM Cloud, the platform allows investors to benefit from speedy bond issuance, reducing a process that previously took 15 days to two days. The efficiency provided by blockchain also reduces operational complexity and the overall cost of issuing bonds.
According to The Thai Bond Market Association, the outstanding Thai bond market stood at
In the past, the sale of government savings bonds was a complex, multiparty, time-consuming process that relied on a non-real-time system, with duplicated validation steps and manual reconciliation prone to data errors.
As blockchain technology streamlines the processes of bond issuance for issuers, underwriters, registrars, investors and key ecosystem participants, the government savings bond platform now becomes an immutable, real-time single source of truth for network participants, which minimizes the redundant validation and reduces the costs of reconciliation. In addition, Thai investors can now purchase bonds up to the maximum value of their individual allocated quota from a single bank.
The effort to develop a secure and efficient government bond infrastructure involved collaboration among eight institutions including BOT, Public Debt Management Office, Thailand Securities Depository Co., Ltd, Thai Bond Market Association and selling-agent banks, including Bangkok Bank, Krungthai Bank, Kasikorn Bank, and Siam Commercial Bank, with IBM Blockchain as technology and cloud platform partner.
The benefits and business value of using blockchain technology for government bond distribution is shared across stakeholders, and include faster bond issuance for investors, decreased workloads and processing time for issuers, underwriters and registrars, as well as greater transparency and reduced operating costs across the entire value chain.
"Bank of Thailand's success with the government savings bond project is the latest example of how blockchain technology can redefine the way businesses operate by simplifying complex processes resulting in fast, transparent, secured and efficient multiparty collaboration," said Patama Chantaruck, VP for Indochina Expansion and MD of IBM Thailand. "IBM is proud to bring our world-class blockchain platform and IBM Cloud to support Bank of Thailand, and work side-by-side with them in achieving this important milestone for Thailand's financial industry."
Bank of Thailand now plans to extend blockchain to all other government bonds targeting both retail and wholesale investors.
Thailand is an active adopter of blockchain technology, with a dynamic ecosystem extending to both public and private spheres. In 2019, the electronic letter of guarantee (eLG) platform and network participated in by 22 Thai banks and 15 companies successfully went live and currently handles approximately
1Size of Thai Financial Markets , Issuance of Domestic Bonds , Outstanding Value of Domestic Bonds http://www.thaibma.or.th/EN/Market/SummaryStatistics.aspx
About IBM Blockchain
IBM is recognized as the leading enterprise blockchain provider. The company's research, technical and business experts have broken barriers in transaction processing speeds, developed the most advanced cryptography to secure transactions, and are contributing millions of lines of open source code to advance blockchain for businesses. Since 2016, IBM has worked with hundreds of clients across financial services, supply chain, government, retail, digital rights management and healthcare to implement blockchain applications, and operates a number of networks running live and in production. The IBM Blockchain Platform delivers the end-to-end capabilities that clients need to quickly activate and successfully develop, operate, govern and secure their own business networks. IBM is an early member of Hyperledger, an open source collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies. For more information about IBM Blockchain, visit https://www.ibm.com/blockchain/ or follow us on Twitter at @ibmblockchain.
Media contacts:
Paranee Reymondon
IBM Thailand Co., Ltd.
Tel: +66 2 273 4164 Email: paranee@th.ibm.com
View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bank-of-thailand-launches-worlds-first-government-savings-bond-on-ibm-blockchain-technology-301145253.html
SOURCE IBM
FAQ
What was announced by IBM on October 5, 2020?
How much did the Bank of Thailand issue in government savings bonds?
What benefits does the blockchain platform provide for bond issuance?
Which institutions collaborated with IBM for the bond issuance project?
What does the Bank of Thailand plan for the future of blockchain technology?
