Marketnode successfully digitalises RODS form creation and submission, further strengthening Singapore’s fixed income digital infrastructure
Background and introduction
In 2022, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced the Financial Services Industry Transformation Map (ITM) 2025, laying out five growth strategies to further strengthen Singapore’s position as an international financial centre in Asia. In line with the Financial Services ITM, Marketnode is focused on the digitalisation of financial infrastructure to enhance efficiency in areas such as bond issuance, listing, and settlement.
A typical bond issuance requires co-ordination and collaboration between multiple parties (both onshore and offshore) over 200 – 700 steps per deal. Our industry engagement and research revealed that the Return on Debt Securities (RODS) workflow was one of the key industry pain points to be addressed. Marketnode then worked with MAS and other financial market participants to develop a digital RODS filing application on the Marketnode Gateway platform to provide a digital alternative for users.
Current RODS submission process
Firstly, the RODS filing is prepared and checked by the arranging banks, reviewed by legal counsel, and then approved by the issuer. Once approved, a hardcopy is prepared and signed off by the entire deal team before submission to MAS.
Significant time and co-ordination within the deal team is required to complete these tasks. Processing time is also impacted by the need for physical delivery. In general, this process takes anywhere from 3 – 14 business days.
Illustration of current RODS filing process
Digital RODS submission process via Marketnode Gateway
Through Marketnode Gateway, all parties on the deal are now able to orchestrate tasks on a single platform, entirely digitally. Various quality of life features such as outstanding task tracking, auto-population of deal details, and SingPass / DocuSign integrations further enhance and improve the experience. Once signed electronically, the RODS form is directly submitted to MAS.
Illustration of digital RODS flow via Marketnode Gateway
Benefits and results
In July 2023, the first deal was input by HSBC on behalf of Apeiron Bioenergy, who issued a S$50 million five-year senior unsecured green bond guaranteed by the Credit Guarantee and Investment Facility, a trust fund of the Asian Development Bank supporting ASEAN+3 companies to access the region’s bond markets. The bond was listed on the Singapore Exchange.
The digital RODS application via Marketnode Gateway achieved the following benefits, amongst others:
Same day processing, versus the typical 3 – 14 business days workflow
100% digital execution on the platform with e-signature, reducing need for physical copies
Auto-population of deal details through document data extraction technology
Full end-to-end audit trail
Seamless flow for repeat transactions
What’s next?
Marketnode first began our journey in fixed income digitalisation, and has since launched data, documentation and tokenisation capabilities via the Gateway platform.
Our vision is to provide issuers, arrangers, and law firms with a single platform to issue, list, and settle via traditional (i.e., central securities depositories) and / or digital channels, including independent or bank-owned tokenisation platforms.
As APAC’s tokenised asset infrastructure, we look forward to bringing to market new purpose-built applications and welcoming more issuances via Marketnode Gateway.
For enquiries, please reach out to us at [email protected]. Users may login at https://gwy.marketnode.com.