By Nesil Staney
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is working towards making corporate bonds more accessible and tradeable like equities, chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said on Saturday. Speaking after addressing the Bombay Chartered Accountants Society, Pandey said the regulator is facilitating their trading on stock exchange platforms and introducing measures to enhance liquidity.
This, experts said, includes the implementation of a liquidity window and exploring trading on exchange platforms similar to stocks and government securities. This is aimed at creating greater demand and wider access to these securities.
SEBI has already introduced a three-day liquidity window for bond investors, allowing them to sell bonds back to the issuer at specific intervals before maturity, enhancing market participation.
The regulator is also simplifying the framework to improve trade execution and yield calculation in the bond market. SEBI has also taken steps to lower the face value of corporate bonds, making them more accessible to retail investors and promoting greater participation in the bond market.
“Recently, online bond platforms have provided some liquidity to corporate bonds. Even retail investors can now pick up bonds that were earlier not possible for them to access. SEBI and RBI are trying to work together to further improve easy access to corporate bonds for retail,” said Pandey, adding, “In phase one, you would be able to actually take orders through brokers, similar to the manner of equity markets.”
When asked about the interim order against New York-based hedge fund manager Jane Street , Pandey said the regulator will not tolerate any form of market manipulation. He said surveillance has been increased both by the regulator and also at the exchange level. When asked if similar patterns have been seen with other foreign portfolio investors as well, Pandey said, “All what I can say that market manipulation is not going to be tolerated.”