NEW DELHI — India’s corporate bond market requires broader retail participation and targeted awareness initiatives to overcome long-standing liquidity bottlenecks and enhance price discovery, according to Kamlesh Shroff, President of the Association of NSE Members of India (ANMI).
Speaking on Thursday at an industry event addressing market infrastructure, Shroff highlighted the historical divergence between India's equity and debt markets. While equity investing has matured substantially over the past three decades—fueled by high retail engagement and structured financial literacy drives—the domestic corporate debt segment remains predominantly institutional and slow to gain similar momentum among individual investors.
Addressing the Liquidity Deficit
The primary challenge facing the Indian corporate debt space continues to be secondary market liquidity. Currently, trading activity remains concentrated in top-tier, highly rated paper, leaving a vast majority of issues thinly traded.
Shroff emphasized that market breadth is a direct prerequisite for efficient price discovery. Without adequate trading volume and diverse market participants, fair valuation becomes volatile, exposing investors to wider bid-ask spreads and liquidity risks.
"If you have liquidity, it is when you have a proper market," Shroff noted during his address. "If you don’t have liquidity, price discovery comes into play. Higher participation and market breadth will lead to better liquidity, which in turn will help improve price discovery."
Drawing parallels to order-matching efficiency in the cash equity segment, Shroff explained that scaling trading volumes deepens order books. When order flow increases across various bond categories, automated matching systems can clear transactions at rates that accurately reflect real-time market supply and demand.
Channel Partners and Risk Education
To bridge the gap between retail capital and debt issuers, Shroff welcomed the regulatory introduction of fixed income channel partners. Designed to act as localized intermediaries, these distribution network partners are tasked with educating investors outside major metro hubs.
"They are the ones who can actually advise and create awareness for investors across all pin codes," Shroff said. "It is a practical system and a progressive way forward for market expansion."
Regarding risk mitigation, Shroff addressed the implementation of standardized riskometers for fixed-income products. As corporate bonds carry varying degrees of credit, interest rate, and liquidity risks, visible risk-profiling tools enable retail investors to align specific debt instruments with their individual risk tolerances and investment horizons.
Industry experts note that while recent regulatory reforms by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)—such as reducing the face value of privately placed corporate bonds to lower entry barriers for retail buyers—have laid the groundwork, widespread adoption will depend on sustained distributor outreach and improved market depth. Broadening the investor base beyond traditional banks, mutual funds, and insurance firms remains a critical step for deepening India's capital markets.