The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is moving forward with its pilot on tokenisation of corporate bonds in coordination with the Reserve Bank of India, with a wider project expected in the near future.
The tokenisation pilot would examine whether shared data can enable the simultaneous transfer of securities, making settlement more efficient and reducing reconciliation costs, SEBI Whole-Time Member Amarjeet Singh said on Thursday.
Bond push
The regulator is also looking to deepen the corporate bond repo market, which currently has typical daily volumes of around ₹6,000 crore but accounts for less than 1 per cent of overall repo volumes. SEBI is engaging with relevant authorities to iron out some of the issues that extend beyond the regulator’s remit, he said.
To improve liquidity in the secondary market for corporate bonds, the regulator is also working on the design of a formal market-making framework as proposed in the Union Budget 2026-27. The market had nearly 33,000 outstanding instruments across 7,200 issuers, creating a fragmentation challenge, Singh said.
