Sebi proposes easing debt ISIN limits

On August 10, 2026, the India — Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) issued a consultation paper proposing to increase the maximum number of International Securities Identification Numbers (ISINs) that can mature in a financial year for privately placed debt securities from 14 to 17. The proposal includes raising the cap for plain-vanilla debt securities from 9 to 12, while keeping the limit for structured and market-linked instruments at 5. Additionally, Sebi proposed a tiered mechanism allowing extra ISINs for large issuers once outstanding maturities exceed Rs 15,000 crore, with one additional ISIN for every further Rs 3,000 crore. Sebi also proposed exempting India — India-serviced/Extra Budgetary Resources (EBR) bonds and ESG debt securities from the ISIN limits to encourage issuance. Furthermore, Sebi suggested removing the mandatory requirement for issuers to list all outstanding unlisted non-convertible debt securities issued on or after January 1, 2024, at the time of first listing, leaving past listings to issuer discretion while maintaining the requirement for subsequent issuances. These changes aim to ease liquidity and refinancing pressures for Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) and large corporates, and to reverse the decline in listed debt issuance, which fell from 80.81% in September 2023 to 76.55% by June 2026. Sebi has invited public comments until August 31.