The Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India (MSE) has facilitated its first tokenised corporate bond issuance through its Electronic Bond Platform (MSE EBP) under SEBI’s Demat 2.0 pilot, marking a significant step towards modernising India’s corporate bond market. The issuance was undertaken by IIFL Finance, with Trust Investment Advisors serving as the arranger. The pilot operates under SEBI’s Regulatory Sandbox framework and uses distributed ledger technology (DLT) to issue corporate bonds natively as digital tokens. While the bonds are tokenised, ownership records continue to be maintained with statutory depositories, ensuring integration with the existing regulated market infrastructure. Settlement is carried out using Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

The initiative seeks to make India’s debt-market infrastructure faster, more transparent, secure and efficient, potentially improving settlement processes, widening market access and supporting more efficient capital formation. Tokenisation could also enable greater automation in areas such as bond servicing and settlement. The Demat 2.0 pilot was launched by SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey and RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra at Global Fintech Fest 2026. MSE MD and CEO Latika S. Kundu said the initiative could help shape the future of India’s debt markets by combining new technology with existing financial-market infrastructure.