Malaysia's Bond Ledger Differs From U.S. Tokenized Treasury Repo Trade

Malaysia’s new securities platform links digital bond ownership records to round-the-clock settlement in central bank money, a different structure from a U.S. Treasury repo trade using tokens tied to securities in custody. Bank Negara Malaysia, the country’s central bank, launched its digital bond platform on Oct. 20. Known as SSDS+, it handles issuance, safekeeping and records of ownership and transfers for tokenized bonds and sukuk, or Islamic bonds. A connected system called RENTAS+ moves the payment when a security is purchased. The payment is made in central bank money, and the two systems support payment and settlement around the clock.