Clifford Chance advises BNP Paribas and the Republic of Slovenia on the first Eurozone sovereign digital bond issuance

Global law firm Clifford Chance has advised on the first Eurozone sovereign digital bond issuance by a Eurozone sovereign, the Republic of Slovenia. The transaction was arranged and placed by BNP Paribas, within on-chain settlement using the French Central Bank (Banque de France)’s tokenised cash solution provided within the European Central Bank’s (ECB) wholesale central bank money (CeBM) settlement experimentation programme.

The issuance of the EUR 30,000,000, 3.650% per annum digital bonds due 25 November 2024 was carried out using Neobonds, BNP Paribas Global Markets’ private tokenisation platform that records the legal ownership of digital bonds, providing an operational framework for issuing and trading digital bonds, automatically generating coupons and supporting all lifecycle events, including secondary trading.

The Clifford Chance cross-border and cross-disciplinary team advising on the transaction was made up of Frédérick Lacroix (partner), Kate Vyvyan (partner), Alexander Tollast (counsel), Grégory Sroussi (counsel), Gopal Bains (senior associate) and Russell Harris (senior associate).