Other participants in the transaction included Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Pfizer and Legg Mason’s Western Asset.

JP Morgan, National Bank of Canada (NBC) and other large institutions have tested a new platform for issuing financial instruments powered by blockchain, the technology underpinning bitcoin. 

The Canadian lender issued a $150 million one-year floating-rate Yankee certificate of deposit on a platform powered by Quorum, an open-source blockchain developed by JP Morgan in-house.

Participants in the transaction included Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Pfizer and Legg Mason’s Western Asset and other investors in the certificate of deposit.

"Blockchain-related technologies have the potential to bring about major change in the financial services industry," David Furlong, senior vice president of artificial intelligence, venture capital and blockchain at National Bank of Canada, said in a statement.

In recent years, banks have invested millions of dollars in blockchain-related ventures, hoping that the technology, first designed in 2009 to power bitcoin but now underpins thousands of crypto-currencies and platforms, could help streamline financial processes and oust inefficiencies. 

The blockchain-based debt issuance application is “designed to incorporate functions across the entire debt instrument transaction lifecycle, including origination, distribution, execution, settlement, interest rate payments, and maturity repayments,” NBC said.