Mumbai, June 8 (IANS): The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is preparing to launch a bond tokenisation pilot within the next six to nine months as part of a broader reform agenda aimed at strengthening India’s capital markets, SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said on Monday. Speaking at the ICICI Securities India Investor Conference, Pandey said the initiative is expected to improve participation in the debt market and make fixed-income instruments more accessible and efficient. He added that SEBI is also working on a market-making framework to enhance liquidity in the secondary corporate bond market. Coordination with the Reserve Bank of India remains crucial for several upcoming reforms, particularly following the central bank’s draft guidelines on total return swaps and corporate bond derivatives issued earlier this year. According to Pandey, these products are expected to move forward once the regulatory framework is finalised.
The renewed focus on bond market reforms comes as corporate bond issuances have crossed Rs 9 lakh crore, while overall market capitalisation has reached around 128 per cent of GDP and mutual fund assets have surpassed Rs 80 lakh crore. Despite this growth, SEBI acknowledged that liquidity in the secondary bond market remains relatively shallow compared to the size of the system. Pandey said a revised methodology using granular market-level data and wider instrument coverage now provides a more accurate assessment of market strength. He noted that these developments reflect a growing shift towards capital markets as a key avenue for household savings and wealth creation. In addition, SEBI is reviewing variable net worth requirements for stock brokers, although no final decision has been taken. The proposal remains under examination and may result in a recalibrated framework that balances capital adequacy requirements with operational flexibility for market intermediaries.