Leading bourse National Stock Exchange today launched the country’s first dedicated debt trading platform here and said it is awaiting the market regulator SEBI’s guidelines for allowing participation of mutual funds, insurance companies and pension funds.

The debt trading platform is expected to provide retail investors an opportunity to invest in corporate bonds on a liquid and transparent exchange platform.

Banks and primary dealers are the first to enter and they will provide enough liquidity in the debt segment, SEBI whole-time member Rajeev Kumar Agarwal said after inaugurating the debt platform here.

The mutual funds, insurance companies and pension funds are also expected to participate after guidelines for the same are issued.

“We are awaiting guidelines from the market regulators for allowing mutual funds, insurance companies and pension funds to participate in the debt segment. Once the relevant guidelines are issued, all these categories will be able to trade directly as members,” NSE Chief (Business Development) Ravi Varanasi told presspersons.

NSE had recently received approval from SEBI to launch the debt segment.

“We have been actively engaging with many key institutions and are confident that they will be able to bring in liquidity to the platform, which will benefit the entire eco-system of issuers, institutions and retail investors,” NSE MD and CEO Chitra Ramkrishna said.

“The institutional platform on the exchanges is an innovation, which has been launched after intensive feedback from market participants. It is similar to RBI’s NDS-OM, where Government securities are traded on a transparent platform,” Ramkrishna added.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW