The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on August 10, 2026, issued the consultation paper on Review of provisions related to ISIN for Debt Securities.
The following has been stated:
• SEBI proposes to increase the maximum number of ISINs maturing in a financial year from 14 to 17. The limit for plain vanilla debt securities would increase from 9 to 12, while the limit of 5 ISINs would apply to structured debt securities, market-linked debt securities, Floating Rate Bonds (FRBs), Zero Coupon Bonds (ZCBs) and Tier II bonds. Where the amount of plain vanilla debt securities maturing reaches ₹15,000 crore, one additional ISIN would be permitted for every additional ₹3,000 crore.
• Further, SEBI proposes to exclude Government of India-serviced/Extra Budgetary Resources (EBR) bonds and ESG debt securities while calculating the applicable ISIN limits. The rationale is to provide PSUs greater flexibility for their own funding requirements and encourage issuance of ESG debt securities.
• The consultation paper also proposes to amend Regulation 62A of the SEBI LODR Regulations by removing the requirement for a new issuer to retrospectively list all its outstanding unlisted non-convertible debt securities issued on or after January 1, 2024. Such earlier issuances would effectively be grandfathered, while the requirement to list subsequent debt issuances after the issuer's first debt listing would continue. This is intended to reduce the cost and operational burden of retrospective listing and encourage more issuers to list their debt securities.
The comments/suggestions should be submitted by August 31, 2026.
