Societe Generale SFH, the covered bond vehicle of Societe Generale, issued €40 million of covered bonds (“obligations de financement de l’habitat” or “OFH”)) as security tokens directly on the Ethereum blockchain protocol.
The main outcome of this live transaction was to explore a new process of delivery-versus-payment between a Security token and a digital euro (CBDC*) issued by the Banque de France using a blockchain platform.
This operation proves that legal & technological frameworks are mature enough to foresee the development of a professional capital markets activity
This issuance has been settled on May 14th, 2020 with a maturity of 5 years. This bond is not listed and not cleared by a CSD in order to be compliant with the French Decree of December 2018.
Different smart-contacts have been integrated into the token as a call option at the hand of the issuer (at any time at par at the Issuer’s option subject to a Notice Period of not less than six (6) Business Days), a soft bullet format (extension of maturity of 1 year), and the calculation of the coupon….
The Notes will not bear any interest.
The denomination of the Note is EUR 100,000.
The dematerialized Notes are in fully registered form (au nominatif pur), registered in a distributed ledger technology, or dispositif électronique d’enregistrement partagé, as defined in Articles L. 211-3 et seq. of the French Monetary and Financial Code (the DEEP). The DEEP used as register to evidence title to the Notes is Ethereum, an existing permissionless DEEP. Title to the Notes will pass upon, and transfer of such Notes will only be completed through registration of the transfer in the DEEP. The registration of the Notes in the DEEP, and any reference made thereto, is subject to a business continuity plan.
The Issuer performs the registration of the Notes and their transfer in the DEEP, via the Registrar and based on smart contracts. Registration of the Notes in the DEEP in the name of Noteholders
shall be effective only if the payment has been made, on the account designated for this purpose, to the Issuer (upon issue) or to the Noteholders (upon transfer).
No investor may hold title to the Notes, and may be registered as such in the DEEP, without prior registration on Société Générale Forge Platform and satisfactory KYC proceeding by the Registrar on behalf of the Issuer.
The documentation is based under the Issuer´s EUR 40bn EMTN programme (theProgramme) for the issue of obligations de financement de l’habitat dated 29 May 2019, as supplemented from time to time.
The target market are Eligible counterparties and professional clients only; excludes retail clients.
This transaction has been structured by Société Générale Forge in collaboration with Société Générale Group’s Treasury.
Société Générale Forge had the different roles below:
- Registrar dfgfsfngsdfdjgnhdflgjkndf:gjdfng:jdfbng:kdfjbn:dfjgbndf:gndf:;gnbdf:g;bndfg:;dfnbg:;dfbn:;dfgnd:f;g,ndwf:;,gndwf:,;gd
- Fiscal Agent
- Facility Plateform