Iberdrola, BBVA, and Santander launch DLT syndicated financing facility
19 October 2026 Spain
Reporter: Matthew Challis
Image: K_illustrator_Photo/stock.adobe.com
Iberdrola, BBVA, and Santander have arranged a €150 million corporate syndicated financing facility, managed entirely using distributed ledger technology (DLT).
Madrid-based Gómez-Acebo & Pombo acted as legal advisers for the transaction, which was managed through the platform developed by ioBuilders, with support from BBVA and Santander.
The institutions say the transaction marks the first live syndicated loan whose entire lifecycle — including execution, disbursement, management of interest, waivers, repayments, assignments, and maturity — is administered using DLT.
Participating firms will be able to share and maintain a single, synchronised, and immutable record of information, the consortium says.
The platform also manages the main contractual events in a coordinated manner throughout the life of the loan, including the calculation and notification of interest, payments of principal and fees, early repayments, monitoring compliance with agreed financial covenants and information undertakings, the processing of certain contractual consents, and transfer of participations between lenders.
All events are recorded on the DLT infrastructure and visible in real time to authorised parties.
According to Iberdrola, the transaction aligns with its digital transformation strategy, using innovation, data, and emerging technologies to streamline financial and treasury processes.
Following this inaugural transaction, the firms hope to progressively onboard new participants, expand the platform’s functionalities, and eventually move towards a shared infrastructure for the syndicated loan market.
Speaking on the initiative, Rob Kay, global head of investment grade and emerging markets debt at Santander CIB, says: “This transaction represents an important step forward in the evolution of syndicated financing, demonstrating how DLT-based technologies can bring greater efficiency, transparency, and traceability to complex financial processes.”
Alberto Falco, head of portfolio monitoring and innovation at BBVA CIB, remarks: “By combining the advantages of DLT as an immutable record with the programmability of smart contracts to automate operational processes, our ambition is for this platform to become a meeting point that other institutions can join to help drive the syndicated loan market.”
Carlos Matilla, CEO of ioBuilders, adds: “The adoption of blockchain technology in financial environments is increasingly becoming a reality thanks to the benefits it provides.
“With this transaction, we demonstrate that these advantages can also be extended to a live syndicated loan and its end-to-end management, with full legal validity and based on a single source of information shared by all parties.”
