India’s largest depository National Stock Depository Limited (NSDL) is said to be working on a dedicated platform to simplify and speed up bond selling for retail investors. The depository is developing technology that will allow instant verification and blocking of securities at the time a sell order is placed, eliminating the uncertainty around whether a retail investor actually holds the bond or will honour the trade.
“Digitising and simplifying the bond sale process for retail will enhance liquidity in the secondary corporate bond market. Currently it is a tedious and lengthy process often requiring paperwork which discourages investment,” said Vishal Goenka, co-founder of Indiabonds, adding that stronger financial infrastructure from market institutions could significantly boost retail participation.
For years, liquidity has been constrained by the cumbersome process of exiting a bond—requiring physical delivery instruction (DI) slips and taking anywhere between three to seven days for transfers between depository players (DPs).
Work underway
Senior officials at the depository confirmed that work is underway following SEBI’s mandate to create a bond-selling platform within a quarter (Q4 of FY26). They said the institution is actively engaging with bond broker associations to incorporate operational feedback and has already launched two key application programming interface APIs—one enabling brokers to retrieve client demat details across DPs through OTP authentication, and another allowing brokers to receive a debit mandate for a client’s demat account post‑trade execution.
Official said in the next phase we will enable seamless debiting of client accounts based on prior mandates and client confirmation, effectively removing the need for physical paperwork. While discussions are progressing, sources noted it is still early at this stage to confirm whether the platform will go live by March-end or the following quarter.
Suresh Darak on selling bonds
“Today selling bonds through OBPs is challenging for customers, as these platforms does not offer active quotes. This leaves sellers stuck in one-to-one negotiations without anonymous trading or guaranteed settlement like in equities,” said Suresh Darak, Founder of Bondbazaar.
While buying of corporate bonds is seamless on the OBPs as it is an open architecture, selling is not. Today different demat account of buyers and sellers can’t do selling instantaneously. It sometimes takes 3 to 7 days for physical delivery instructions for transfer. Developing APIs will make selling seamless, where selling from one demat to another demat account with different brokers would happen in a seamless manner.
“The initiative could dramatically reduce the current three-day bond‑selling cycle and bring the fixed-income market closer to the ease and transparency of equity trading—unlocking the liquidity that has long eluded India’s retail bond ecosystem,” adds Goenka.
