How to read the corporate bond database

How to read the corporate bond database comes down to knowing three things about any field you look at: which annexure it lives in, who filed it, and who is allowed to correct it. Chapter XIV of SEBI's NCS Master Circular splits the database that way, and the split explains why some fields are more reliable than others. This guide walks the field structure, the verification model and the update clocks. It is not investment advice.

Start with which annexure a field lives in

The database is not one flat table filed at one moment. Chapter XIV of the Master Circular for issue and listing of non-convertible securities, securitised debt instruments, security receipts, municipal debt securities and commercial paper, dated 15 October 2025, prescribes two field sets filed at different stages, plus a timetable.

Annexure XIV-A is the issue-time snapshot, filed by the issuer to the depositories when applying for the ISIN, and verified by the depositories at ISIN activation.

Annexure XIV-B is the life-of-the-bond record, filed by the issuer to a stock exchange where the securities are listed, on a periodical and event driven basis.

Annexure XIV-C is the clock, assigning a responsibility and a deadline to each activity.

Reading a field without knowing which annexure it came from is the main way to misread this dataset. An Annexure XIV-A value describes the instrument as issued. An Annexure XIV-B value describes what has happened since.

What Annexure XIV-A tells you

The 57 fields fall into four groups.

A. Issuer details. Issuer name, former names with the last three retained including merger and amalgamation cases, CIN, LEI, registered office address, compliance officer or company secretary with email, and group companies each with name, CIN, LEI and nature of relationship across subsidiary, associate, holding company, common directors or other.

B. Issuer and instrument classification. Type of issuer by ownership, being PSU, non PSU or an issuer under the municipal debt securities regulations. Sector of business on a macro economic sector to basic industry hierarchy. Type of instrument, including whether it is a green debt security. Whether tax free. Whether the bonds fall under the infrastructure category as notified by government.

C. Issue details. Issue size including any green shoe option, with a separate yes or no on whether a green shoe applies, and the objects of the issue.

D. Instrument details. This is the bulk of it: ISIN, series and tranche, short and long instrument description, face value per instrument, tenure at issuance in years, months and days, secured or unsecured, guaranteed or partially guaranteed, credit enhancement details, whether principal protected, seniority in repayment, coupon basis, coupon type, coupon rate with benchmark and spread where variable, whether a step up or step down coupon applies, an undertaking that the day count convention is actual by actual, a downloadable allotment confirmation letter, put and call option availability each with whether exercisable at discount, premium or par, whether rated and the rating with agency name and date, redemption date, redemption type, partial redemption details, redemption premium, maturity type across thirteen options including amortisation variants, perpetual, perpetual with call, perpetual with put and extendible, default history, and a downloadable link to the shelf prospectus, information memorandum, offer documents, tranches or series.

Field 57 is the cash flow schedule for interest, dividend or redemption, filed at ISIN activation. It carries its own applicability note: the provision applies with effect from 18 August 2025, for prospective issuances and for the residual maturity of ISINs already listed. That note was inserted or substituted with the issuance of a circular dated 13 May 2025.

Read that dating carefully. A cash flow schedule is not present for the full history of every ISIN. For bonds listed before 18 August 2025 it covers residual maturity only.

What Annexure XIV-B tells you

Six blocks, and this is where the post-issuance story lives.

1. Listing details. ISIN, allotment date, listing date, listing quantity, whether first issue or further issue, and exchange. The instructions here matter for anyone counting instruments: a restructured ISIN is marked restructured or flagged, partly paid debentures whose ISIN changed due to an increase in face value must be updated regularly, and re-issuances or further issuances under the same ISIN nomenclature must be reflected separately with the specific amount.
2. A downloadable hyperlink to the exchange's listing notification, the final approval.
3. Record dates. ISIN, record date, whether interest or redemption, and date of payment.
4. Credit rating, split into current and earlier rating details. Each row carries ISIN, rating agency name, credit rating, outlook, rating action across new, upgrade, downgrade or reaffirm, date of the rating, the rating agency's verification status as verified or not verified, and date of verification.
5. Payment status. A yes or no on whether interest or redemption payment was made, then interest details across twelve items including amount due on due date, frequency, any change in frequency and its details, record date, due date, actual date, amount paid, date of last payment, and reason for non payment or delay. Redemption details run thirteen items including full or partial, the basis of partial redemption by face value or quantity, whether quantity redemption is lot or pro-rata, reason for redemption across call, put, premature redemption, maturity, buyback, conversion or other, redemption dates attributable to put and call options, quantity redeemed, due and actual dates, amount redeemed, and outstanding amount.
6. Default history. Whether there have been defaults or delays in servicing any other debt security issued by the issuer, with nature of the issue, issue size, due date, actual payment date, default details, the debenture trustee's verification status as yes or no, and date of verification.

Two fields in that list are unusually useful and unusually easy to misread. The reason for redemption field distinguishes a maturity from a put, a call, a buyback or a premature redemption, so an early redemption is not ambiguous. And default history is issuer-level, not instrument-level: it asks about any other debt security the issuer has issued.

Know who verified the field you are reading

The verification columns are not decoration. Chapter XIV assigns correction rights by party.

Rating agencies access the database to verify the rating information the issuer uploaded, and on any discrepancy notify the stock exchanges and update the correct information themselves. Debenture trustees do the same for default history and other relevant information. Both operate within the Annexure XIV-C timelines.

The practical consequence: a rating row with verification status not verified is an issuer assertion that the rating agency has not yet confirmed. A default history row unverified by the debenture trustee sits in the same position. Treat the verification status column as part of the value, not as metadata.

The update clocks, and the one place they conflict

Annexure XIV-C assigns each activity a responsibility and a deadline. Issuers provide Annexure XIV-A details when applying for the ISIN. Stock exchanges update the database with Annexure XIV-B details received, and depositories provide infrastructure, host and synchronise, all on a daily basis. A depository that receives information from an issuer shares it with the other depository within three working days. Variations in details provided to a depository that fall outside the Annexure XIV-B fields go in within seven days of the change. Cash flow changes go in within one working day.

There is one genuine inconsistency to handle. Paragraph 2.2(b) describes the Annexure XIV-B filing as periodical, within 30 days from the end of the financial year, and event based as applicable. The Annexure XIV-B heading says once a year and event based. But Annexure XIV-C row 2, covering the same filing, says within one working day of the change in such details.

The safe reading is that the annexure carries two paths: an event driven path on a one working day clock for changes, and an annual cycle for periodical submission. Anyone reconciling a filing date against this database should not assume a single cadence, and should not treat a value's absence as evidence that nothing happened, because the applicable path depends on which field changed.

What sits outside the main dataset

Non-convertible redeemable preference shares and securitised debt instruments are present, but in a separate section, in the form available with the depositories, after sharing with the other depository for synchronisation. That is a weaker guarantee than the prescribed field set: the phrase is the form as available with them, not a mandated annexure. Anyone comparing an NCD row against a securitised instrument row is not comparing like with like.

Historical continuity is preserved separately. Data available under SEBI circular CIR/IMD/DF/17/2013 dated 22 October 2013 and circular SEBI/HO/DDHS/DDHS1/P/CIR/2021/572 dated 4 June 2021 continues to be hosted by the depositories.

Read a field by its annexure, its filer and its verifier, and the database becomes a reliable reference. Read it as one flat current-state table and it will mislead on cadence, coverage and verification. The framework overview is in the centralised database for corporate bonds. Flock reports public regulatory filings with every claim sourced and dated. What any of it means for your money is your call to make.