The Philippine Bureau of the Treasury along with the UnionBank and Philippine Digital Asset Exchange launched a blockchain-based mobile app for distributing government-issued treasury bonds.
The president and CEO of UnionBank, Edwin R. Bautista, claimed it was Asia’s:
“first retail treasury bond issuance to leverage on blockchain technology.”
The Philippines' Board of Treasury leveraged blockchain for their bonds. Check it out @coindesk @Cointelegraph !https://t.co/uqfP0w26Ui — Kyle Tan (@kylebrandontan) July 21, 2020
Almost 77% of adults in the Philippines still do not have a bank account.
The app called Bonds.PH is aimed at providing easy investment options to the unbanked population of the country.
The National Treasurer of the Philippines, Rosalia V. De Leon, says on the app:
“The launch of Bonds.PH paves the way for all Filipinos, particularly the unbanked, to easily and affordably invest in the BTr’s newest retail treasury bond, RTB-24.”
The application will allow citizens of Philippines to easily invest in retail treasury bonds for as little as 5,000 Philippine pesos (~$100).
App users will be also able to make instant payments using popular payment services such as InstaPay, GCash, and Paymaya, internet banking, or through over-the-counter payment using their UnionBank accounts.
The Bureau of Treasury enabled the app with distributed ledger technology to reduce time and costs during the manual verification and settlement processes.
Through the use of DLT, the Bureau wanted to ensure a feasible, secure and economically viable bond distribution process.
Source: Cointelegraph | Image: Unsplash