Pretty interesting move by SEBI and RBI !!
RBI Governor and SEBI Chairman launched a pilot called Demat 2.0.Simple version: they are putting corporate bonds on a shared digital ledger (DLT).
Bond and money settle together at the same time using RBI’s wholesale digital rupee (e₹). No more waiting 2-3 days.
REC already raised ₹500 cr on 7 Sept. Then L&T ₹500 cr and IIFL ₹25 cr on 9 Sept. Total around ₹1,025 cr so far.
Few points I noted:
- Same bond, same rights, same ratings. Not crypto.
- Uses your existing demat account. No new KYC.
- Interest and redemption can go automatically through smart contracts.
- Right now only institutions. Retail and secondary trading come later.
If it works, bond issuance becomes faster and cheaper. That can help the whole debt market over time.
Had a question here though:
Now will this actually bring more liquidity to corporate bonds, or is it likely for big issuers only? Also, any risk we should watch since they are saying its a new methodology distributed ledger technology?.
This looks interesting im not sure when will this be live for us.