The transaction will be the EIB's first digital bond to be issued using a combination of private and public blockchains and its second digitally native bond issuance under Luxembourg law following the EUR100 million fixed rate bond issued on 29 November 2022. Once issued on 2 February 2023, the GBP 50 million, two-year bond, which bears a floating rate of interest, will be registered on a private blockchain operated and accessed via the HSBC Orion Platform, while a public blockchain mirror record provides increased transparency on an anonymised basis. The bond is expected to be admitted to the Luxembourg Stock Exchange's Securities Official List.

Steve Jacoby, partner at Clifford Chance comments: "Having worked on the EIB's recent digital bond issuance, its first euro-denominated digital bond on a private blockchain, it was a pleasure to assist the EIB again on its latest innovative digital bond issuance denominated in GBP. It is exciting to see that two natively digital securities issuances on DLT infrastructure have now been successfully launched under Luxembourg law in a relatively short space of time."

"Once again the EIB has broken new ground and we are delighted to have been able to leverage our capital markets, regulatory and tech expertise to advise on this complex transaction", continues Alexander Tollast, Counsel at Clifford Chance.

The European Clifford Chance team advising the EIB comprised of Steve Jacoby, Marc Mehlen, Alexander Tollast, Thomas Guala Molino and Federica Gamen.

The joint lead managers (BNP Paribas, HSBC and RBC Capital Markets) were advised by Allen & Overy.