Mediobanca launches AgoraPlatform for automated issuance and lifecycle management of investment certificates

By Joy Dumasia

Mediobanca has digitized its certificate issuance process using the agoraPlatform, an innovative platform that uses Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to achieve greater operational efficiency. The project, developed in conjunction with the UK-based agora Digital Capital Markets (agora), facilitates growth in investment certificates, a market in which Mediobanca is one of the leading players with more than 300 issuances per annum. This innovative platform also received the “MF Innovation Award” in the “Open Innovation: open investment certificate” category, given to Mediobanca at the 2022 Banking Awards organized by Class Editori. 

agoraPlatform is the world’s first platform to use smart contracts and DLT in the issuance and life-cycle management of certificates. The platform significantly reduces the time to produce offering documentation for investment certificates issuance, an activity that normally requires the compilation of large volumes of repetitive information, which makes it liable to operating errors. Thanks to agoraPlatform, much of this information becomes automatic, meaning that manual input is only limited to the initial phase. Thus, the platform gives Mediobanca an enormous competitive advantage, especially when distributors prefer issuers who offer competitive prices and efficiency and an improved time-to-market in drawing up contracts, which is seen as a decisive factor in optimally allocating investment choices. 

The infrastructure developed by agora facilitates seamless interaction between different units and departments in the Capital Markets Area (sale, structuring, negotiation and documentation) in a digital environment. This enables all issuance documents, including term sheets, final terms, and other ancillary documents, to be drawn up and finalized automatically. Such innovation is encouraged by DLT and smart contracts, which facilitate the real-time synchronization of all players, internal and external, involved in the entire issuance process. 

Following the initial launch of the platform in the summer of 2021 and full implementation over the year, Mediobanca now has over 20 active users of the product and has already completed the first issues using this innovative platform. 

Marco Pozzi, Mediobanca Group COO, commented: “Digitalizing issuance workflows is a new achievement for Mediobanca in its technology innovation road map and makes it one of the first movers in the certificates market. Through this innovative platform, Mediobanca aims to increase the volume of issuances and so satisfy the growing demand from its distributors. The adoption of DLT technology also lays the foundation for further automation of the life cycle post-trading, both internally and externally, in an ecosystem that in the future may include central securities depositories and issuing partners.” 

Charlie Berman, Co-Founder and CEO of agora, said: “We are delighted Mediobanca selected agora as its partner in digitalizing workflows in the investment certificates market. By adopting the agoraPlatform, Mediobanca is now at the cutting edge of technology in the financial markets.”