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The Luxembourg Stock Exchange Admits Tezos-based Security Tokens Issued By French Banking Giant Société Générale

The Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE) Admits Tezos-based Security Tokens

In a press release issued by Société Générale yesterday, it was announced that the Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE) had admitted the very first financial instruments registered on a public blockchain.

Both the Tezos and Ethereum blockchains were used.

The three series of security tokens admitted on LuxSE SOL are digital covered bonds (OFH Tokens) and structured products that have been issued and deployed by Societe Generale’s digital assets arm, Societe Generale – FORGE (SG – FORGE).

They are characterized as financial instruments and debt securities under French law and are compliant with the CAST[i] open-source interoperability and securitization framework.

The admission takes place at a time when the EU Pilot Regime  (a pilot regime for market infrastructures based on distributed ledger technology to further enable and support the potential of digital finance in terms of innovation and competition, while mitigating the risks) is about to undergo imminent adoption.

The introduction of the EU Pilot Regime will permit the processing of security tokens through market infrastructures in compatibility with applicable EU regulations within a transitional period.

In terms of presence, the Luxembourg Stock Exchange specialises primarily in the listing of international bonds, in which it ranks first in Europe with 25,831 debt securities listed as of August 2016.

Julie Becker, CEO of LuxSE commented:

“The admission of security tokens on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange Securities Official List represents a true milestone for EU financial markets as it provides for a unique, innovative, robust, and publicly accessible solution for issuers and investors of these instruments. 

This constitutes yet another significant step towards the digital transformation of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, and a very first building block in our contribution towards price discovery and transparency of financial instruments issued using DLT.

We are delighted to welcome Societe Generale, a leading institution in the DLT space, as the first issuer of security tokens at our exchange and are confident that other issuers will follow suit as more and more market participants capitalize on this disruptive technology.”. 

Arnaud Jacquemin, CEO of Societe Generale Luxembourg and member of the Societe Generale group Management Committee, added:

“Leveraging on the differentiating expertise of the SG – FORGE teams, our intimate knowledge of the Luxembourg capital market environment and our close relationship with LuxSE, this first-ever listing shows our institutions’ capacity to step-by-step implement a truly innovative technology, thus helping build tomorrow’s global capital market distribution approach and infrastructure”.

Securities on the environmentally friendly Tezos blockchain seem like a good fit for the Luxembourg Stock Exchange as in 2016 LuxSE launched the Luxembourg Green Exchange (LGX) and became the first exchange in the world to operate a platform dedicated entirely to sustainable securities.

LGX has become a meeting place for issuers of sustainable products and impact-conscious investors, and encompasses more than 1,200 green, social, sustainability and sustainability-linked bonds from 220 issuers in 46 countries.