Project Samara uses digital dollars and distributed ledgers to overhaul bond issuance and trading
A live experiment in "tokenized" bonds is now running in Canada’s wholesale market, with regulators, major dealers and the central bank all in the mix.
The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) and the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) have approved Project Samara, an experimental research project built around a distributed ledger platform operated by RBC.
The consortium behind it includes RBC Dominion Securities Inc., a member of RBC Capital Markets (RBC), RBC Investor Services Trust, the TD Securities division of the Toronto Dominion Bank, TD Securities Inc., the Bank of Canada (BoC) and Export Development Canada (EDC).
Project Samara evaluates how distributed ledger technology can support end-to-end transactions across the bond lifecycle.
On the platform, EDC issues “tokenized” bonds, while market participants conduct bidding, coupon payments, redemption, secondary trading and settlement of bond trades.
The settlement leg uses digital representations of wholesale Canadian dollars that the BoC creates and manages on the distributed ledger.
The consortium will publish a research report on the benefits of issuing and trading bonds using this technology.
Regulators are using Project Samara to advance innovation through dedicated testing environments, including OSC LaunchPad, AMF Laboratory and CIRO's InnovateSafe.
Leslie Byberg, executive vice‑president, strategic regulation at the OSC, said Canadian regulators want to “support responsible innovation in the capital markets” by allowing tokenization pilots under exemptive relief when safeguards are in place.
She said they are open to “industry proposals on tokenization initiatives” that use these regulatory testing environments to strengthen the competitiveness of Canadian markets.
There is a growing international consensus on the need for consistent regulatory outcomes and harmonized standards as tokenization scales.
Tokenization refers to the creation, issuance, or representation of assets using distributed ledger technologies.
Globally, financial institutions and asset managers are launching tokenized products, while central banks and regulators explore how to support innovation while protecting investors and safeguarding financial stability.
Hugo Lacroix, superintendent of securities markets and distribution at the AMF, said the new platforms are meant to “support the testing of novel market structures, business models and products” through tailored regulatory pathways.
He said Canadian regulators want to “help build Canadian markets for the future and support competitiveness.”
In parallel, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA), the council of securities regulators of Canada's provinces and territories, has launched Project Tokenization as a new theme in its CSA Collaboratory.
This initiative promises to work with stakeholders to examine issues arising from the use of tokenized products and their intersection with Canadian securities laws, supporting informed, coordinated responses to innovation in capital markets.
The CSA invites stakeholders to express their interest in contributing to Project Tokenization by completing a survey.
