The Securities and Exchange Board of India has increased the number of International Securities Identification Numbers that an issuer may have maturing in a financial year for debt securities issued through private placements. Effective immediately, the general cap is 17 ISINs, with six additional ISINs available to authorized issuers of capital gains tax debt securities under Section 54EC of the Income Tax Act. The framework allocates up to 12 ISINs to plain vanilla secured or unsecured debt and five to structured debt securities, market linked debt securities, floating rate bonds, zero coupon bonds and Tier II debt capital instruments. Once the amount outstanding across the 12 plain vanilla ISINs reaches INR 15,000 crore, one additional ISIN is permitted for each further issuance of INR 3,000 crore, subject to the overall limit. Issuers that issue only securities in the second category may have up to 12 ISINs maturing in a financial year. Existing ISINs for floating rate bonds, zero coupon bonds and Tier II instruments are grandfathered. However, an issuer with five or more legacy ISINs in the relevant category maturing in a particular financial year cannot add another until the number falls below five. Government of India serviced or Extra Budgetary Resources bonds and Environmental, Social and Governance debt securities are excluded from the applicable limits. Stock exchanges and depositories must make the necessary rule and system changes and monitor issuer compliance.

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