India will launch tokenised corporate bonds next week, as state-run REC aims to raise ₹500 crore ($52.92 million) through bonds maturing in one year and eight months, three merchant bankers said on Friday.
This would be India’s first debt issue to use blockchain technology to enable instant settlement of bond transactions, placing the country alongside markets such as Europe and Hong Kong in using the technology for issuance and settlement.
Tokenised bonds are securities whose ownership, issuance, trading and settlement are recorded digitally on a blockchain or distributed ledger. The Reserve Bank of India’s digital currency will be used to buy the bonds.
The base issue size is ₹100 crore, and REC will have a greenshoe option of retaining an additional four billion rupees, with the bidding for the sale set to take place on Monday, bankers said. Only investors with active security and CBDC wallets would be allowed to place bids for the issue.
Last week, Reuters had reported that India’s markets regulator and the central bank are working together on pushing the technology, citing sources close to the development, with a pilot issue set for launch in early September.