REC Limited has conducted India’s first pilot issue of tokenised corporate bonds under SEBI’s regulatory sandbox, potentially transforming the domestic debt market with faster, more transparent settlement processes.
REC Limited has carried out what it says is India’s first pilot issue of tokenised corporate bonds under the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s regulatory sandbox, a move that points to how domestic debt markets could evolve as issuers and exchanges test blockchain-style settlement tools. The state-owned power financier, described in reports as a Maharatna central public sector enterprise under the Ministry of Power, used the exercise to raise ₹500 crore, or about $60m, through a structure that combined a ₹100 crore base issue with a ₹400 crore greenshoe option.
According to reports from PSU Express, Web India 123 and other outlets, the bonds carried a coupon of 7.30% and a maturity of one year and nine months. The bidding was conducted on the National Stock Exchange’s electronic debt platform and attracted bids of about ₹796 crore, leaving the issue almost eight times oversubscribed. REC accepted the full ₹500 crore on offer.
The tokenised format also allowed same-day pay-in, allotment and listing, with the securities admitted to trading on both the NSE and the Bombay Stock Exchange. Industry commentary on the pilot has highlighted the use of atomic delivery-versus-payment and shared-ledger technology, which are intended to reduce settlement friction and improve transparency. For India’s bond market, the pilot is notable less for its size than for the operational model it tests: faster execution, shorter settlement cycles and a template that could be adapted if regulators and market infrastructure providers decide to widen the use of tokenisation.
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