The bonds were issued as security tokens on the Canton Network blockchain with Societe Generale-FORGE acting as registrar.
Societe Generale issued its first digital bond in the United States, utilizing new tokenization capabilities provided by Broadridge Financial Solutions, a services and systems provider for securities operations. The digital bonds were registered by Societe Generale-Forge, a subsidiary of Societe Generale dedicated to digital assets, officials say.
The new tokenization support from Broadridge helps firms “issue, trade, and manage securities in digital form with embedded privacy, credential management, and direct investor ownership capabilities,” officials say. “Broadridge and Societe Generale-Forge used IntellectEU‘s Catalyst Blockchain Manager to operate their nodes on the Canton Network.”
The Canton Network is a public, permissionless blockchain for institutional finance, governed by the Canton Foundation and featuring participation from leading global financial institutions. Canton facilitates real-time synchronization and settlement across multiple asset classes on a shared, interoperable infrastructure.
The SocGen transaction is intended to show how firms can “leverage tokenization and permissioned blockchain technology to unlock the benefits of instant settlement and transparency while adhering to traditional capital markets practices and requirements,” according to the announcement.
“Broadridge is uniquely positioned to lead the tokenization of corporate and structured bonds, given its proven track record of leveraging blockchain technology and delivering innovative solutions for our clients,” says Horacio Barakat, head of digital innovation at Broadridge, in a prepared statement.
“The expansion of tokenization beyond treasuries into corporate and structured bonds is an exciting step — one that will help increase the liquidity and utility of these assets across financing and collateral use cases. As institutions like Societe Generale embrace this shift to tokenization, Broadridge is proud to provide the secure, scalable infrastructure to support this innovation,” Barakat says.
Horacio Barakat
The tokenization capability for bonds “complements the Broadridge Distributed Ledger Repo (DLR) platform, which processed an average of $385 billion in daily repo transactions in October. … DLR harnesses the transformative power of tokenization and smart contracts to accelerate collateral velocity, improve liquidity management, and reduce trade processing costs. DLR is interoperable within both traditional and blockchain-based market infrastructure,” officials say.
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