The Philippine Dealing System Holdings Corp. (PDS Group) is eyeing to launch the Philippines’ first-ever digital corporate bond in February as part of its initiatives to utilize digital technologies to deepen the domestic capital markets, the Department of Finance (DOF) said in a statement yesterday.
“The PDS is aiming to conduct an end-to-end test of the Digital Registry and Depository with market participants by January this year and is targeting its possible live launch with an issuance of a digital bond by late February,” Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp. (PDEx) president and chief executive officer Antonino Nakpil said.
Nakpil said the proposed digitalization roadmap for the corporate bond market which includes the use of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) for the registry and depository, complements and links with the electronic Securities Issue Portal (e-SIP).
The e-SIP allows the online submission of documents required for PDEx Listing and Philippine Depository & Trust Corp. (PDTC) Registry services and facilities for issuers and underwriter-selling agents in their initial public offerings for corporate bonds.
Nakpil said the PDS has been working closely with a Fintech firm from Singapore on a Proof-of-Concept (POC) DLT-backed Digital Registry and Depository infrastructure to test this system’s functionality and performance as well as its integration with the e-SIP.
