Mumbai: Debt issuances and corporate bond issuances exceeded $105 billion in the last financial year (FY24) and new equity issuances was about $25 billion, underlining the depth of Indian bond markets, Pramod Rao, Executive Director, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), said on Friday.

Speaking at an Assocham event in the national capital, Rao said they are examining proposals to expand the thematic bonds to encompass social sustainability, sustainability-linked bonds, the securitised debt instruments and municipal bonds.

“We are eager to partner corporate India on sustainable finance transition and net zero goals via the bond market. We have recently introduced the norm of once listed, always listed for corporate bond issuers,” Rao told the gathering.

“We expect the volume to increasing as information about availability of this repo clearing becomes widely known and greater participation occurs. The emergence of online bond platforms has led to a further democratisation of the bond market and today the corporate bond market is about 60-67 per cent of the corporate lending book of the banks,” informed Rao.

R. Doraiswamy, MD, LIC of India, said while the capital bond market has been evolving, LIC has been a player in terms of particularly democratising this, in terms of development of the nation, creating the infrastructure for almost six decades.