Overview
- REC Limited issued a ₹500 crore tokenized corporate bond under SEBI’s Regulatory Sandbox using a base ₹100 crore plus a ₹400 crore green shoe to meet investor demand.
- The issue was heavily oversubscribed with a book of about ₹796 crore, and REC accepted the full ₹500 crore at a 7.30% coupon for a tenor of one year nine months.
- Bidding ran on the NSE’s EBP platform and the bonds were listed on both NSE and BSE after same-day pay‑in, allotment and listing, demonstrating faster settlement than normal debt markets.
- The pilot recorded securities on a permissioned distributed ledger called Demat 2.0 and referenced RBI wholesale CBDC to enable atomic delivery‑versus‑payment, with major institutions such as HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank participating.
- Officials and market infrastructure providers called the test operationally successful but said they must clarify which participants actually used CBDC, the precise DvP workflow, and the legal and custody rules needed for wider rollout.