Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], September 9 (ANI): The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is working on facilitating bond tokenisation as part of its wider push to use technology to expand access to financial products across the country, a senior official of the market regulator said on Wednesday.
Speaking to ANI on the sidelines of the Global Fintech Fest 2026 in Mumbai, SEBI Executive Director Manoj Kumar said the regulator was looking at ways in which technology could make distribution of financial products more seamless.
“As we have done lot of facilitation like bond tokenization, this is work in progress,” Kumar said.
“Going forward, we look at a scenario where technology can enable us to distribute all products throughout the country seamlessly,” he added.
Tokenisation broadly involves representing ownership or rights linked to an asset in a digital form. In the case of bonds, such technology could potentially make issuance, holding or transfer of securities more technology-driven.
Kumar said forums such as the Global Fintech Fest also help regulators understand areas where further adoption of technology can be facilitated.
“So, this event of GFF is truly a wonderful concept because it helps us as a regulator to understand that what are the areas where technology adoption can be further facilitated,” he said.
He also highlighted the high adoption of technology among younger users and said this could support the country's financial inclusion efforts.
“It is very appropriate time to have this type of forum or this type of conference because all of us know that technology adoption in Genz is very high and if we can catch them young, this will truly help in making the financial inroads throughout the country and financial inclusion journey seamless,” Kumar said.
On SEBI's approach to new regulations and consultation papers, Kumar said the regulator follows a participative process and remains engaged with stakeholders even after regulations are introduced.
“We have always adopted a participative approach where we not only consult through consultation papers but we have very hectic and very focused internal consultation with all stakeholders,” he said.
“So, all our proposals are based on those extensive consultations and not only the consultation ends with the regulation. Consultation continues throughout. So, this journey is continuous. The dialogue between us and the stakeholder goes on perpetually,” Kumar added.
On the use of artificial intelligence, Kumar said AI was already supporting SEBI's functioning.
“AI is definitely helping SEBI,” he said, adding that AI adoption was also increasingly visible across the financial ecosystem. (ANI)
SEBI says bond tokenisation work in progress, eyes seamless distribution of financial products across India
