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IIFL Finance has completed a ₹25 crore tokenised bond transaction on the Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India, becoming the first non-PSU NBFC in the country to do so under SEBI's Demat 2.0 pilot.
Demat 2.0 is a joint SEBI-RBI pilot launched at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai on 10 September 2026, under which corporate bonds are issued as digital tokens on a distributed ledger.
The money leg is settled in the RBI's wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency through the Unified Market Interface, enabling atomic settlement in which bond and cash move at the same instant.
Three issuers — REC Limited, Larsen & Toubro and IIFL Finance — have raised ₹1,025 crore under the pilot so far.
Ownership records stay with the statutory depositories NSDL and CDSL, and the tokenised bonds carry the same legal status, credit rating and investor safeguards as conventional corporate bonds.
To test the issuance, settlement and servicing of corporate bonds as digital tokens on a distributed ledger, shortening settlement from days to the same day and cutting reconciliation costs in India's debt market.
Key: Smart contracts automate the bond's lifecycle, the RBI's wholesale CBDC settles the money leg atomically against the token, and statutory ownership records still rest with NSDL and CDSL, so the instrument stays inside the existing legal framework.
Regulator of the Indian securities market; set up in 1988 and given statutory powers in 1992. It designed the Demat 2.0 pilot jointly with the RBI.
Central bank and currency issuer, including the e-rupee CBDC used to settle the cash leg of these bonds. Its wholesale CBDC pilot began on 1 November 2022 and the retail pilot on 1 December 2022.
SEBI-recognised stock exchange that provided the bidding platform for the IIFL issue. It began in 2008 as MCX Stock Exchange, started currency derivatives trading on 7 October 2008, launched its capital market segment and the SX40 index in February 2013, and was renamed Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India in 2015.
India's two statutory depositories, which continue to hold the ownership record of the tokenised bonds. NSDL was set up in 1996 and CDSL in 1999.
REC Limited becomes the first issuer under the pilot, raising ₹500 crore from 18 investors
Larsen & Toubro raises ₹500 crore from four investors; IIFL Finance raises ₹25 crore from one investor on the MSE platform
SEBI and the RBI formally launch the Demat 2.0 pilot at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai
MSE announces that it has facilitated a tokenised corporate bond issue on its Electronic Bond Platform
IIFL Finance announces that it is the first non-PSU NBFC in India to complete a tokenised bond transaction
Gives SEBI statutory authority to regulate the issuance and trading of securities, and therefore to run a pilot that changes how corporate bonds are issued and settled.
The Act under which NSDL and CDSL hold securities in dematerialised form. Because the pilot keeps ownership records with these depositories, a tokenised bond remains legally identical to a conventional one.
The e-rupee is issued by the RBI under its currency-issuing powers, which is what allows CBDC to serve as the cash leg in a securities settlement.
General Awareness > Banking and Financial Awareness > Capital markets, CBDC, regulators
GS Paper III > Indian Economy > Mobilisation of resources and financial markets; Science and Technology > Blockchain
General Awareness > Economy and Current Affairs
Consider the following markets: 1. Government Bond Market 2. Call Money Market 3. Treasury Bill Market 4. Stock Market How many of the above are included in capital markets?
Answer: Only two
A corporate bond represented as a digital token on a distributed ledger, while its legal ownership record stays with a statutory depository.
Settlement in which the securities leg and the cash leg move simultaneously, so neither party can receive without the other being paid.
Central bank digital currency meant for interbank and institutional settlement, as distinct from the retail e-rupee used by the public.
The interface linking the tokenised bond platform to the RBI's wholesale CBDC so that money and securities settle together.