India is preparing to launch its first tokenized corporate bonds as part of a pilot that will settle transactions with a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC). The pilot is expected to begin in September.
Issuance details
REC Limited, a state‑controlled power infrastructure finance company, intends to issue tokenized bonds with a total value of less than 5 billion Indian rupees (approximately $57 million). The offering will initially be limited to a select group of investors and may be announced at a financial technology event in Mumbai.
Settlement mechanism
Investors will need two digital accounts to participate: a wholesale CBDC wallet provided by a bank and a new electronic securities wallet, referred to as DEMAT 2.0. The DEMAT 2.0 wallet, being developed by Indian securities depositories, will record bond holdings on a distributed ledger.
Regulatory collaboration
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) are jointly overseeing the initiative. The bonds will carry an initial three‑month lock‑up period, and a secondary market for the tokenized bonds is expected to emerge by December.
Comments
Cointelegraph reached out to the RBI, SEBI and REC for comment but had not received responses at the time of publication.
