Matheson recently advised Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) on the creation of the first digital platform for the issuance of commercial paper.
The Weinberg Capital programme, an asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) programme sponsored by LBBW, was amended to enable the Irish conduit issuer to create and issue commercial paper using distributed ledger technology (DLT) based on the Corda platform. The commercial paper is governed by Irish law.
This innovation reduces settlement times for commercial paper issued under the Weinberg Capital programme dramatically, from approximately two trading days to less than an hour.
The first commercial paper issued on the Weinberg Capital DLT platform was issued on 14 February 2019 and matured on 19 February 2019. This represents the first time asset-backed commercial paper has been issued and redeemed using blockchain technology, without using a parallel paper-based process as a fall-back.