Google Cloud and Nammu21 Put $1.945B Loan Facility on Blockchain

Google Cloud and fintech company Nammu21 have completed a proof of concept using artificial intelligence and blockchain technology to automate syndicated loan operations, including loan transfers, participant approvals and repayments.

The demonstration used Google Cloud Universal Ledger (GCUL), the company’s permissioned distributed ledger, alongside Nammu21’s AI-powered platform, which converts complex credit agreements into structured digital instruments and executable smart contracts.

According to a November 4 announcement published on the Google Cloud Blog, the proof of concept modelled a $1.945 billion Term Loan B facility, representing one part of a broader multi-facility transaction. The initiative aims to address operational delays in syndicated lending, where multiple banks, borrowers and other participants must coordinate around detailed contractual terms.

AI Converts Credit Agreements Into Programmable Instruments

Nammu21’s platform processes the legal documentation governing a loan and converts its terms into what the company calls a Digital Credit Instrument (DCI).

The instrument maps individual contractual provisions, including transfer conditions, eligibility requirements, consent obligations and other operating rules, to their original clauses in the credit agreement. These conditions are then translated into executable logic on GCUL through smart contracts written in gculpy, a Python-based programming language developed for the ledger.

This allows the system to apply the loan agreement’s own conditions when processing transactions, rather than relying on participants to interpret and reconcile the rules manually at each stage.

The approach is designed to address a longstanding challenge in syndicated lending: the complexity of coordinating multiple parties around customized agreements, which can contain different tranches, covenants and transfer restrictions.

Loan Transfers and Repayments Run Through GCUL

In the proof of concept, an agent bank selects a credit agreement processed by Nammu21. The platform uses the extracted terms to create a corresponding smart contract on GCUL, establishing an on-ledger representation of the loan facility.

The borrower and lenders are then onboarded through a consent-based process. Each participant must review and approve the invitation through their own interface. Once all parties have joined, the agent bank records a cryptographic hash of the loan’s key terms on the ledger to verify that the on-chain representation corresponds with the underlying agreement.

Subsequent activities, including secondary-market transfers and repayments, follow workflows governed by the contract. A transfer, for example, requires the consent of the relevant lender, borrower and agent bank before it can be executed.

Google Cloud also said payment flows, including interest payments and loan close-outs, can be settled on GCUL using tokenized commercial bank money, rather than relying on separate external payment rails.

The system incorporates role-based permissions to restrict access to sensitive loan information, allowing participants to view only the data relevant to their roles in a transaction.

Syndicated Lending Faces Lengthy Settlement Processes

The initiative targets operational inefficiencies in the syndicated loan and private credit markets, where secondary-market transactions can take weeks to settle.

Google Cloud cited Loan Market Association data showing that secondary-market settlement for par and near-par loans averaged 42 days in the fourth quarter of 2024, with a median of 27 days.

By connecting contractual terms to transaction execution, the Nammu21-GCUL model is intended to reduce manual checks, reconciliation requirements and delays between counterparties. It could also make it easier to transfer loan positions while preserving the consent and eligibility requirements set out in the original agreements.

The demonstration builds on Google Cloud’s broader development of GCUL as infrastructure for institutional financial applications. The company has positioned the permissioned ledger as a platform for payments and digital asset workflows, with smart-contract functionality designed for financial institutions.

GCUL is as a private, permissioned blockchain designed for financial institutions, with Python-based smart contracts and wholesale payment pilots.

The Nammu21 proof of concept adds syndicated lending and private credit operations to the use cases being explored for the ledger. However, the announcement describes a demonstration rather than a full commercial deployment across the loan market.