India Deploys Tokenized Corporate Bonds Pilot
India has launched a tokenized corporate bond pilot, allowing companies to issue digital tokens on a distributed ledger owned by statutory depositories. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said Demat 2.0 connects to the Reserve Bank of India's wholesale central bank digital currency through its Unified Market Interface.
The first issuers were public-sector lender REC, which raised 5 billion rupees from 18 investors on Monday, engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro (L&T), which raised another 5 billion rupees from four investors on Wednesday, and non-bank lender IIFL, which issued 250 million rupees in bonds to one investor on the same day.
The pilot's infrastructure allows issuers to receive funds on the day of bidding instead of two to three days later. SEBI said atomic settlement removes delays between money movement and bond issuance, while smart contracts automate interest and redemption payments.