South Korea’s Hana Bank issues $100m digital bond

By Divya Shah

South Korea’s Hana Bank has issued a $100 million five-year floating-rate digital bond on Euroclear’s blockchain-based Digital Financial Market Infrastructure (D-FMI) platform. 

The transaction marks the first issuance by a Korean bank of a Digitally Native Note (DNN) on Euroclear’s D-FMI. It is also the first digital bond to be listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX), highlighting the growing adoption of distributed ledger technology (DLT) within capital markets.  

Beomjun Cho, Head of Financial Markets Group at Hana Bank, said the transaction demonstrates how innovative digital market infrastructure can be integrated with established funding programmes while maintaining the security, reliability and accessibility expected by institutional investors. 

Standard Chartered acted as Sole Structuring Bank, Sole Lead Manager and Sole Dealer, overseeing the bond’s structuring, execution and distribution.   

The issuance was completed through Euroclear’s digital market infrastructure while remaining connected to its traditional settlement network. This enabled Hana Bank to utilise its existing Global Medium Term Note (GMTN) programme and allowed international institutional investors to access and trade the digital bonds through their existing Euroclear accounts and systems. 

The approach delivers an investor experience similar to that of conventional bond issuances, supporting broader participation and secondary market liquidity while leveraging blockchain-based infrastructure. 

Ankur Prakash, Head of Digital and Strategic Initiatives, Global Banking, Standard Chartered said, “Each new issuer helps broaden the market, deepen institutional understanding and create new reference points for future adoption. As the first Korean bank to issue digitally native notes on Euroclear’s D-FMI, Hana Bank is helping extend the reach of digital market infrastructure into new geographies and investor communities.”   

The deal reflects increasing interest among banks and institutional investors in digital bonds, as financial institutions explore blockchain-enabled issuance and settlement models to improve efficiency while maintaining compatibility with existing market infrastructure.