FRANCE - The company Societe Generale has issued its first digital green bond, leading an important step toward a blockchain system working side by side with the classical finance. The bond is a Security Token directly registered by SG-FORGE on the public Ethereum blockchain. Société Générale is the fourth bank for capitalization of banking groups in the Eurozone. It is the fourth biggest French bank by total assets after BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole and BPCE.
This operation is ensuring greater transparency and traceability of ESG data. AXA Investment Managers and Generali Investments, fully subscribed these security tokens. This transaction represents the first digital green bond issued by Societe Generale to exploit the differentiating features of the blockchain, which allows for greater transparency and traceability, as well as greater fluidity and speed in transactions and settlement.
This inaugural transaction is structured as a 10 million euros senior unsecured bond with a 3-year maturity. An amount equivalent to the net proceeds of this bond will be used exclusively to finance or refinance Elispective Green Activity, as defined in the Green, Social and Sustainability Bond Framework of Societe Generale which, since its first inaugural issue in 2015, has been an issuer common occurrence of instruments of this type. This issuance also marks a first step towards the use of blockchain for data storage and as a certification tool for issuers and investors to promote greater ESG data transparency and positive impact on a global scale.
The Société Généra's operation brings two fundamental innovations for the green bonds. The first thing is related to the informations on carbon emissions related to the digital green bond infrastructure, those infos will be available 24 hours a day in open access directly in the bond's smart contract. So that issuers and investors can measure the carbon emissions of their issues on the financial platform. In particular this tool was introduced by a new SG-FORGE service that follows the publication of its first comprehensive report on carbon emissions on Security Tokens. The other new option is to settle the delivery of securities on-chain (the data that are part of a blockchain) through the Euro CoinVertible, the digital asset issued by SG-FORGE in April 2023. While Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) solutions are in the testing phase, this range of settlement methods demonstrates SG-FORGE's broad capabilities in providing a full range of on-chain services.
SOURCES: La Stampa, Finance Community
Ilaria Vanni is a TV journalist for italian broadcasting and coordinator of The Meta Economist portal. She has a philosphy degree and she's now studing the economic and technological issues connected to the new frontiers of the metaverse.
