(Reuters) -Singapore's second-largest bank Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp said on Monday it has established a $1 billion digital U.S. commercial paper programme, bolstering its dollar funding capabilities.

U.S. commercial papers are a relatively inexpensive funding source that corporations use to meet their immediate cash flow needs. Through the programme, OCBC aims to tap into the $1.4 trillion U.S. commercial paper market.

The bank has leveraged blockchain to establish the programme, which will complement its $25 billion conventional U.S. commercial paper programme established in August 2011.

J.P. Morgan's Digital Debt Service application will act as the sole dealer.

The funds raised will be used for general funding purposes, OCBC said.

"Singapore's blockchain ecosystem is advancing fast, and asset tokenisation is gaining real momentum. Our focus is now firmly on commercialisation," said Kenneth Lai, OCBC's head of global markets.

The first U.S. commercial paper tokenised issuance under the programme took place on August 20.

(Reporting by Sherin Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)