Brokers knock on RBI door for clarity on g-sec retail trading
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had announced access to the Negotiated Dealing System-Order Matching (NDS-OM) platform for non-bank brokers with an aim to boost retail participation in the trading of government securities during its February monetary policy.
However, implementation timelines or draft regulations have not yet been conveyed to brokers. NDS-OM is an electronic trading platform for buying and selling government securities. It is owned and managed by the RBI. «Many clarifications are required on how this will be implemented from a broker's angle — whether there would be the same demat account, or a separate SGL (statutory general ledger) account. Can we use the same unique client code for both equities and gsecs? All these queries need clarifications from regulators,» said a fixed income executive at a top brokerage firm. Brokerage houses also do not have their back offices integrated with the NDS-OM platform where the government securities are traded and that integration will come with a cost, another broker said.
The RBI has been pushing for retail participation in G-Secs market by launching a mobile application and having reduced last year the minimum investment amount to ₹10,000.
All brokers ET spoke with said they did not see demand for investing in G-Secs as retail participants are not too aware about how the government securities market works.
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«A nationwide education campaign is required for retail investment on G-Secs to pick up and demand to increase,» said Satish Menon,