The bank is launching a marketplace that for issuers to directly issue their own bonds connect with investors.
DBS is launching the Fixed Income Exchange (FIX) to digitalize and make the bond issuance process more efficient, the bank announced on Tuesday in a statement.
FIX allows issuers to directly issue bonds to the marketplace, and fully digitalizes and automates issuance-related documentation. It also supports issuers in generating digital bond-ready transactions, which can be listed and traded on the DBS Digital Exchange (DDEx).
Keppel Corporation is the first corporate issuer on the platform, with a $1 billion Euro-Commercial Paper Programme.
With FIX, DBS said it hopes to make capital markets access more time and cost-efficient, while also developing the breadth and depth of Asian bond markets at a faster pace.
The time is ripe for traditional ways of bond origination to make way for a more digital approach, to do what has been aspired for so long – by taking the first step towards the creation of an independent platform that allows bond issuers efficient and effective direct access to the market place and bond investors, Clifford Lee, global head of fixed income at DBS, said in the announcement.
Just last week, domestic rival UOB piloted the digital issuance of its latest bond offering on exchange-operated digital asset issuance platform Marketnode, a joint venture between Singapore Exchange and Temasek.