The Bank of Thailand launches the world’s first government savings bond for IBM blockchain technology

PR Newswire

Bangkok, ThailandOct. 5, 2020 / PRNewswire / – SIBOS – IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that the Bank of Thailand (BOT), the central bank, has successfully launched the world’s first blockchain-based platform for issuing government bonds . $ 6 billion in two weeks.

By using blockchain technology in the highly secure IBM Cloud, investors can benefit from the fast issuance of bonds and reduce a process that previously took 15 days to two days. The efficiency of the blockchain also reduces the operational complexity and overall cost of issuing bonds.

According to The Thai Bond Market Association, the outstanding Thai bond market was $ 421 billion as of December 2019. Government bonds dominate the Thai market with an outstanding value of $ 157 billion in 2019 1, which represents 37% of the total outstanding Thai bond market.

In the past, selling government savings bonds was a complex, time-consuming, multi-party process that relied on a non-real-time system, with duplicate validation steps and manual reconciliation that was prone to data errors.

As blockchain technology streamlines the processes of issuing bonds for issuers, subscribers, registrars, investors and key ecosystem participants, the government savings bond platform is now becoming an immutable real-time truth source for network participants, minimizing redundant validation and reducing the cost of Reconciliation. In addition, Thai investors can now buy bonds up to the maximum value of their individually assigned quota from a single bank.

Efforts to develop a safe and efficient government bond infrastructure included collaboration between eight institutions including BOT, Public Debt Management Bureau, Thailand Securities Depository Co., Ltd., Thai Bond Market Association and banks with sales agents including Bangkok Bank, Krungthai Bank and Kasikorn Bank and Siam Commercial Bank (SMUUF) with IBM Blockchain as technology and cloud platform partners.

The benefits and business value of using blockchain technology for government bond distribution are shared by all parties involved and include faster bond issuance for investors, lower workload and turnaround time for issuers, subscribers and registrars, and greater transparency and lower operating costs in the entire company value chain.

“The Bank of Thailand’s success with the Government Savings Bonds project is the latest example of how blockchain technology can redefine the way businesses work by simplifying complex processes, resulting in fast, transparent, secure and efficient collaboration between leading multiple parties, “said Patama Chantaruck, VP of Indochina Expansion and MD of IBM Thailand. “IBM is proud to bring our world-class blockchain platform and IBM Cloud to support the Bank of Thailand and to work side by side with them to achieve this important milestone for us Thailand Finance industry. “

The Bank of Thailand is now planning to extend the blockchain to all other government bonds that appeal to both private and large investors.

Thailand is an active user of blockchain technology with a dynamic ecosystem that extends to both the public and private spheres. In 2019, 22 Thai banks and 15 companies successfully participated in the platform and network for electronic warranty services (eLG), in which letters of guarantee worth approximately USD 300 million were processed. The Thai Customs Department also became the second government agency in the southeast Asia TradeLens, a blockchain-based global trade digitization platform that improves the speed, accuracy and security of local and international shipping activities. Other blockchain pilots and applications are also being rolled out to bring transparency and efficiency to finance, insurance, government and other sectors.

1Size of Thai financial markets, domestic bond issue, outstanding domestic bond value http://www.thaibma.or.th/EN/Market/SummaryStatistics.aspx

Information on IBM Blockchain
IBM is recognized as the leading blockchain provider for businesses. The company’s research, engineering and business experts have overcome barriers in transaction processing speed, developed the most advanced cryptography to secure transactions, and contributed millions of lines of open source code to advancing blockchain for businesses. Since 2016, IBM has worked with hundreds of financial services, supply chain, government, retail, digital rights administration, and healthcare customers to implement blockchain applications and operates a number of networks that run live and in production. The IBM Blockchain Platform offers the end-to-end functions that customers need to quickly activate and successfully develop, operate, control and secure their own corporate networks. IBM is an early member of Hyperledger, an open source cooperation for the further development of cross-industry blockchain technologies. For more information on IBM Blockchain, please visit https://www.ibm.com/blockchain/ or follow us on Twitter @ibmblockchain.

Media contacts:
Reimondon is recovering
IBM Thailand Co., Ltd.
Tel .: +66 2 273 4164 Email: [email protected]

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SOURCE IBM