Canada pilots tokenized bond settlement using central bank deposits

Bank of Canada, together with RBC Capital Markets, TD Bank Group (TD) and Export Development Canada (EDC), has completed Project Samara, a trial of tokenized bond issuance on distributed ledger infrastructure, according to a recent press release.

During the pilot, ECD issued a $100 million tokenized bond that was traded and settled on the Samara Platform using central bank money.

The Samara Platform, built on Hyperledger Fabric, integrates separate bond and cash ledgers to support end-to-end transactions, including issuance, bidding, coupon payments, redemption, and secondary trading.

The architecture enables instant settlement and allows secondary market trading directly on-chain, eliminating traditional delays between trade execution and final settlement.

“Project Samara shows how the public sector and industry can work together to harness innovation in the payment ecosystem,” said Ron Morrow, Executive Director of Payments, Supervision and Oversight at the Bank of Canada.

The experiment extended earlier efforts on the Jasper project series, which explored digital currencies and fintech applications in Canadian financial infrastructure. Project Samara used a real bond funded and traded with central bank money rather than simulated assets.

The trial showed efficiency and risk management benefits. Participants reported efficiency gains across several dimensions, including improved operational workflows and enhanced data integrity.

The platform reduced counterparty and settlement risk by enabling atomic settlement, according to the results.

Secondary trading capabilities demonstrated how tokenized assets could move between parties without the reconciliation burden that characterizes conventional bond markets.

However, the pilot’s findings suggest widespread adoption may take time due to operational and regulatory barriers.

As noted, system complexity partially offset efficiency improvements, with participants noting increased coordination requirements, new governance structures, and higher liquidity costs. Technology-related operational risks emerged around auditability and fallback mechanisms, introducing vulnerabilities that do not exist in the current market infrastructure.

Regulatory gaps presented another challenge. Centralized functions such as marketplace operation, custody, and off-platform trade reporting highlighted misalignment between existing regulatory frameworks and the decentralized principles underlying distributed ledger technology.

RBC Capital Markets, part of Royal Bank of Canada, emphasized the settlement capabilities demonstrated by the platform. Jim Byrd, Global Head of Macro Products at RBC Capital Markets, described the achievement as “reimagining how issuers and investors can interact with fixed-income markets.”

Scott Moore, Executive Vice-President of Finance and Chief Operating Officer at EDC, characterized the issuance as “an important step in deepening our understanding of tokenization.”