The €150 million transaction is executed through a new blockchain-based platform developed by ioBuilders together with the two banks and represents a major technological step forward in the digitalisation of the syndicated loan market.
Madrid, 15 October 2026.
Iberdrola, BBVA and Santander arranged a €150 million corporate syndicated financing facility, managed entirely using distributed ledger technology (DLT), commonly known as blockchain. The transaction marks a milestone for the financial market as the first live syndicated loan whose entire lifecycle, from execution and disbursement through to the management of interest, waivers, repayments, assignments and maturity, is administered using this technology. The transaction aligns with Iberdrola’s digital transformation strategy, which places innovation, data and emerging technologies at the heart of its efforts to drive efficiency and streamline financial and treasury processes. Gómez-Acebo & Pombo acted as legal advisers on the transaction.
The digital infrastructure enables participating institutions to share and maintain a single, synchronised and immutable record of information, replacing reconciliation processes between separate databases with a single shared source of information. This technology improves transaction traceability, reduces the risk of operational errors and facilitates more efficient management of syndicated financing, enabling the various participants to interact in an orderly manner under the operational control of the agent bank appointed for the financing.
Throughout the life of the loan, the platform manages the main contractual events in a coordinated manner, 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 transfers of participations between lending institutions. All these events are recorded on the DLT infrastructure and are visible in real time to authorised participants.
The application of distributed ledger technology to the syndicated loan market makes it possible to simplify the management of financing lifecycles, reduce operating costs, improve coordination between institutions and increase the efficiency of one of the most important segments of corporate financing. It may also help increase market liquidity and facilitate access to this type of financing for mid-sized companies by simplifying processes that have traditionally limited their participation in these transactions.
The transaction was managed through the platform developed by ioBuilders with the support of BBVA and Santander to digitalise the management of syndicated financing. Following this first transaction, the institutions will work on progressively onboarding new participants and expanding the platform’s functionalities, with the aim of moving towards a shared infrastructure for the syndicated loan market. The goal is to harness the potential of distributed ledger technology to modernise one of the most important markets in corporate finance, traditionally characterised by a high administrative burden and intensive coordination among multiple participants, including the agent bank, lending banks and the client.
Rob Kay, Global Head of Investment Grade and Emerging Markets Debt at Santander CIB, said: “Innovation is part of Santander’s DNA. 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. It also highlights how digital assets are already generating tangible value for the business and contributing to the transformation of financial markets. At the same time, it lays the foundations for an industry collaboration model with the potential to redefine different aspects of corporate financing.”
Alberto Falco, Head of Portfolio Monitoring and Innovation at BBVA CIB, said: “This transaction reflects BBVA’s commitment to the digitalisation of financial markets. Blockchain technology enables a particularly significant transformational leap in syndicated loans, a product that has traditionally seen limited digitalisation and has been accessible to very few clients. 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.”
“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. It is also worth highlighting that the technology underpinning this platform opens the door to more efficient management of financial institutions’ balance sheets, enabling new strategies for loan mobilisation in the secondary market,” said Carlos Matilla, CEO of ioBuilders.