KUALA LUMPUR: CIMB Group Holdings Bhd, through CIMB Islamic Bank Bhd, has completed a pilot to test the settlement of tokenised sukuk using tokenised deposits in a controlled environment.
The pilot involved a RM1.68 billion issuance under CIMB Islamic’s existing RM10 billion senior sukuk wakalah programme, with tenures ranging from five to 15 years.
Of the total issuance, RM1.38 billion was represented in tokenised form and subscribed by 12 institutional investors, while the remaining RM300 million was issued as traditional sukuk.
Tokenisation allows financial assets such as sukuk to be represented digitally using distributed ledger technology, while tokenised deposits represent commercial bank money in digital form.
The bank said combining the two could enable greater automation and more integrated settlement of financial transactions, potentially reducing settlement delays, improving liquidity management and making fund movements more efficient.
CIMB Group Islamic Banking chief executive officer Ahmad Shahriman Mohamad Shariff said the initiative was driven by three key objectives namely promoting inclusivity, improving transparency and increasing efficiency in financial transactions.
He said digitalisation could make investments more accessible to smaller investors, while enhancing transparency by allowing funds be traced throughout the transaction process.
“This is also useful for Islamic finance, where we are very much asset-based or asset-backed,” he said at a press conference.
Ahmad said tokenisation could also enable faster settlement, which would improve efficiency and help strengthen Malaysia’s relevance in the capital market.
“Ultimately, all this will help move Malaysia forward in terms of our relevance in the capital market space,” he said.
The pilot was conducted as part of CIMB’s participation in Bank Negara Malaysia’s digital asset innovation hub, which provides a controlled environment for financial institutions to test new digital asset applications.
CIMB is also engaging with the Securities Commission on the development of tokenised capital market products.
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