MSEI – Facilitates India’s First Tokenised Corporate Bond Under SEBI’s Demat 2.0 Pilot

Expert Analysis:

• MSE’s Electronic Bond Platform (MSE EBP) facilitated the tokenised bond issuance by IIFL Finance, with Trust Investment Advisors acting as the arranger. The ₹25 Cr issue was executed under SEBI’s newly launched Demat 2.0 pilot.

• The transaction represents India’s first corporate bond issued natively on a distributed ledger, while ownership remains recorded with statutory depositories and settlement is linked to RBI’s wholesale CBDC infrastructure.

• Demat 2.0 is designed to enable faster settlement, lower manual processing and automated interest/redemption payments through smart contracts. Atomic settlement can also reduce settlement risk by moving the bond and funds simultaneously.

• MSEI gains visibility as part of India’s emerging tokenised securities infrastructure, with the pilot supported by SEBI, RBI, depositories and multiple market infrastructure institutions. Later phases are expected to explore secondary trading and retail investor access.