The world’s second-largest bank in terms of market capitalization China Construction Bank (CCB) was going to issue a $3 billion worth of digital bond on a blockchain. However, the banking giant’s bond issuance plan has been withdrawn. This digitized bond was supposed to be listed on the Malaysian digital securities exchange Fusang.
As reported by Reuters on November 23, the Malaysian cryptocurrency exchange has said that it has withdrawn $3 billion blockchain bond issuance at the request of the issuer. Longbond Ltd was supposed to issue this bond using blockchain technology. However, the Labuan branch of China Construction Bank said that the bond will not proceed further for the issuance.
CCB Labuan, the listing sponsor and lead arranger of the bond, has issued the notification of the bond suspension to the Labuan Financial Services Authority (LFSA).
Commenting on the suspension of this bond, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Fusang exchange Henry Chong expressed his disappointment over the cancellation of the issuance of this digitized bond saying that there was not any kind of issue neither regulatory, legal, or technical issue with the filing, the Fusang platform, or with the process of Initial Public Offering (IPO). As he said:
“While we are disappointed that this Listing has been suspended, there were no legal, regulatory, operational, or technical issues with the FUSANG platform or the IPO process and filing. The overwhelming investor interest and demand for this landmark USD 3 billion program has been a fantastic validation of the digital issuance and listing process that we have created, and it is unfortunate that the Listing Sponsor has decided that they are unable to proceed with this Listing.”
China Construction Bank initially announced the issuance of $3 billion worth of digital bond on the blockchain on the 11th of November. The trading of the bond was scheduled to occur on the 13th of November. However, the listing was postponed on the scheduled day.
No specific reason has been explained regarding why they have suspended the issuance of the blockchain bond. However, the exchange has said that it is now giving all of the funds back to investors.