A Blockchain Framework for Increased Trust in Green Bonds Issuance

Abstract

Bonds issuance is a highly technical and complicated process, entailing mutually untrusted stakeholders with sometimes conflicting objectives. Currently, the global bond market is faced with several pain points when it comes to bond issuance, like disparate regulatory frameworks, limited traceability and auditability, settlement failures, and inefficient issuance processes. Block-chain technology is capable of addressing some of the issues mentioned above. In this paper, we propose a block-chain-enabled green bond issuance architecture. In particular, we develop an adaptable and efficient system that reduces the intermediary costs and offers compliance, scalability, confidentiality, and security. The block-chain-enabled system also acts as a transparent yet fully controllable decentralized authority where the funds of qualified, environmentally friendly projects could be traced. Our proposed architecture considers the various aspects and the complexity of the bond issuance procedures and the special requirements of green bonds. The architecture is based on a five-step model from green bond initialization to archiving. To adjust the processes of bond issuance to a block-chain-enabled model, we use digital tokens based on the ERC-20 token standard. Within the smart contracts developed, we use various functions to handle the prerequisites of validators and regulators’ approval based on the documentation presented and the parameters of rate and maturity requested by the issuer. We use a separate smart contract to implemented forensic services. The overall system also considers various regulatory compliance instruments and enhances access of regulatory bodies to issuance records. We believe that the proposed architecture could be of significant value to researchers and practitioners from the financial domain.

Keywords: Securities issuance, digital tokens, smart contracts

JEL Classification: G-20, H-40