In February, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) issued its first HK$800m ($102m) tokenized green bond last February. Now several banks are doing roadshows for the next tranche to be launched within a few months.
Last week’s roadshows were organized by the Bank of China (Hong Kong), Credit Agricole CIB, Goldman Sachs and HSBC, according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP). That’s the same syndicate of banks involved in this year’s issuance.
Given that Hong Kong is planning a “Green Finance Week” in February, it seems likely that the next issuance might coincide with that. Especially as the first green bonds will be due for redemption around then. According to the SCMP, the second batch will also offer a 4.05% return.
As with the previous bond issuance and the trials HKMA conducted before, both the bond issuance and tracking of the green credentials will use blockchain.
Tokenized green bonds are still relatively few and far between. Mid year, the European Investment Bank (EIB) issued a SEK 1 billion ($93m) tokenized green bond on so|bond, a blockchain platform developed by Credit Agricole CIB and Sweden’s SEB. ABN Amro issued a tokenized €5 million ($5.3m) bond on behalf of client Vestada. And yesterday, Societe Generale announced the issuance of a €10 million tokenized green bond.
It remains to be seen which tokenization platform will be used. Last time HKMA used Goldman’s GS DAP platform. HSBC has Orion and Credit Agricole CIB has so|bond (used for the EIB green bond issuance).
