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The Central Bank of Thailand has successfully launched a new blockchain platform for issuing government savings bonds. This platform aims to improve the investor’s buying experience, increase operational efficiency and reduce overall costs.
The digitization of traditional financial assets is gaining increasing attention in global finance. The Central Bank of Thailand has been working on a blockchain project for more than two years. In less than a week, 50 billion baht or 1.6 billion USD of government savings bonds have been sold on the bond market thanks to this project.
The DLT Scripless Bond Project applies blockchain technology to develop a safe, reliable and efficient government bond infrastructure.
The new infrastructure has been successfully commissioned supporting the government savings bonds: “1 Baht Bond” and “Moving Forward”. The total issue of 50 billion bahts was fully allocated to investors earlier than planned.
Investors will benefit from faster receipt of the bonds and purchase of bonds from a single bank up to the individual quota. The project would also help service providers to reduce operational complexity and lower the overall cost of issuing bonds.
This project is the result of the collaboration of eight Thai institutions including the Central Bank of Thailand, the Public Debt Management Office, the Thailand Securities Depository Co, Ltd, the Thai Bond Market Association and commercial banks such as Bangkok Bank, Krungthai Bank, Kasikorn Bank and Siam Commercial Bank.
Thailand is one of the Asian countries with an aggressive willingness to explore the potential of blockchain technology. The country, which is progressing in the development of its digital central bank currency, began testing the new MDBC with major companies last July, before its official launch.
Thailand’s experimentation with Blockchain initiatives also took a serious turn when the country unveiled plans to revolutionize the travel industry with the issuance of virtual visas based on blockchains.
Thailand’s plans to use blockchain technology to restructure the travel industry were to improve the system to speed up the application process and protect tourists’ confidential information.
In the next phase, the infrastructure will be expanded to support all government bonds, both retail and wholesale, to fully meet the demand of all stakeholders.
The Thai government is aware of the advantage of the blockchain in the world of finance. This interesting bet could become very profitable for one of the richest countries in South-East Asia.