BBVA Asset Management is investigating the use of blockchain technology for a "tokenised" investment fund.
The bank has registered the short-term fixed-income fund in the Spanish National Securities Market Commission's sandbox for a pilot.
Called BBVA Token Renta Fija Corto Plazo, the fund's units will be registered and stored in a private blockchain network. BBVA Asset Management acts as fund manager and promoter, relying solely on the network, smart contracts and nodes raised in the Allfunds Blockchain network to process orders.
For the unitholder, investing in the fund will be the same as it would be for a more traditional offering, except that subscription and redemption orders will be managed and recorded via blockchain.
As a pilot project, the fund is not open for trading, but is only available to employees of the fund manager.
“The project is a big step towards the adoption of a technology with immense transformative potential in asset management, starting out in a controlled and regulated environment that will enable BBVA AM to explore the benefits in a secure and scalable way,” says Belén Blanco, CEO, BBVA Asset Management Europe.