Now Reading: Sebi proposes higher ISIN cap to ease debt repayment pressure
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Sebi proposes higher ISIN cap to ease debt repayment pressure
Sebi has proposed raising the cap on debt securities maturing in a single financial year from 14 to 17 ISINs for privately placed bonds. The move, outlined in a consultation paper on…
The Story in Brief
Sebi has proposed raising the cap on debt securities maturing in a single financial year from 14 to 17 ISINs for privately placed bonds. The move, outlined in a consultation paper on Monday, allows up to 12 ISINs for plain vanilla debt and five for structured instruments. Large issuers whose outstanding plain vanilla debt reaches Rs 15,000 crore can get one additional ISIN per Rs 3,000 crore.
The regulator also wants to scrap the mandatory listing of all unlisted non-convertible debt issued after January 2024 when a company first lists its debt. This follows feedback that the existing rule raised costs and deterred new listings. Listed debt as a share of total fell from 80.81% in September 2023 to 76.55% as of June 2026. Public comments are open until 31 August.
The Indian Opinion
The usual chorus that Sebi is over-regulating the bond market may now flip to how it bends for large issuers. The additional ISINs for every Rs 3,000 crore over Rs 15,000 crore are clearly aimed at big NBFCs and PSUs, not small firms. Whether this relaxes asset-liability mismatches or merely papers them over depends on actual monitoring. The key test: will the share of listed debt issuance reverse its 4% decline by next June? Watch the data.
Sources (2): livemint.com, thehindubusinessline.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above.
Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources.
