H R Khan: Corporate debt market - developments, issues & challenges
Special address by Shri H R Khan, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, at the
Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry's (FICCI) 9th Annual Conference
on Capital Markets: CAPAM 2012: "Developing Indian capital markets - the way forward",
Mumbai, 12 October 2012.
* * *
Speaker acknowledges the contributions of Dr Subbaiah Singala, Shri Brij Raj, Shri Raj Kumar Jain, Shri
N.R.V.V.M.K. Rajendra Kumar and Shri Vivek Singh of the Reserve Bank of India. He is also grateful to Shri
Surajit Bose for his assistance.
It is an honour to address the distinguished participants of the 9th Annual Conference on
Capital Markets (CAPAM 2012) on an issue which is attracting a lot of attention of the
policy-makers and market participants - the corporate debt market. Deeper and broader
financial markets are desirable for public policy objectives as they play a critical role in
improving the efficiency of capital allocation within the economy. Capital market comprising
equity and debt market is one of the most important segments in the financial system of any
country. While India has a very advanced G-sec market, its corporate bond market is
relatively under developed. Developing a more vibrant corporate bond market has therefore
become an important agenda among the concerned stakeholders, i.e., Government of India
(GoI), the Reserve Bank of India, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the
Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), etc. and in the recent times they
have made co-ordinated efforts to achieve this objective.
A. Need for a well-developed corporate bond market in India
The 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) highlighted the need to reduce the dominance of the
banking system in financing corporate sector by developing a good corporate bond market.
India's infrastructure funding requirements (estimated at around 10 per cent of GDP
annually) need a robust corporate bond market for diversifying risk, enhancing financial
stability, and for better matching of risk-return preferences of the borrowers. Historically,
India's financial system has been bank-dominated, supplemented by the Development
Financial Institutions (DFIs). However, the financial system has undergone several changes
during the recent years and DFIs have been converted into banks. Commercial banks, by
nature, are not able to fill the gap in long-term finance, given the asset-liability management
issues.
A well-developed corporate bond market is critical for Indian economy as it (i) enables
efficient allocation of funds, (ii) facilitates infrastructure financing, (iii) improves the health of
the corporate balance sheets, (iv) promotes financial inclusion for the Small and Medium
Enterprises (SMEs) and the retail investors, (v) safeguards financial stability and (vi) enables
development of the municipal bond market. Accordingly, development of the corporate bond
market has been high on the agenda for the regulators. I will cover each of these areas
briefly.
Efficient allocation of resources
A well-developed corporate bond market provides additional avenues to corporates for
raising funds in a cost effective manner and reduces reliance of corporates on bank finance.
A deep and liquid debt market augments financial savings and helps match the savers to the
borrowers in an efficient manner. By enlarging the financial sector, capital markets promote
innovation in financial instruments. In addition, it instils discipline in behaviour of firms leading
to increased efficiency of the system. The existence of a well-functioning bond market can
lead to the efficient pricing of credit risk as expectations of all bond market participants are
incorporated into bond prices. In order to achieve the objective, it is desirable to have
diversified issuer and investor base. Issuer profile in India, however, is concentrated among
a few category of market participants dominated by financial sector firms including banks,
Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs), financial institutions, housing finance
companies (HFCs) and Primary Dealers (PDs) (81 per cent) while other non-finance
corporates account for only 19 per cent of total issuances made in 2011-12. Similarly, on
demand side, majority of investment are made by banks and institutions including Foreign
Institutional Investors (FIIs) with very little or negligible part played by retail investors. Thus,
there is an urgent need to further develop the Indian corporate debt market.
Infrastructure financing
The Committee on Infrastructure Financing (Chairman: Shri Deepak Parekh) has estimated
that ₹51.46 trillion would be required for infrastructure development during the 12th Five Year
Plan (2012-17) and that 47 per cent of the funds could come through the PPP route. If we
add the potential financing needs for upgrading our railways, urban and rural infrastructure,
the financing needs could be much larger. As much as the G-sec market development has
provided a boost to the development of the corporate bond market, the municipal bond
market could derive similar benefits from a well-developed corporate bond market. This
would provide boost to financing the urban infrastructure in an assured and sustainable
manner. In this context, it is important to note that GoI's capital expenditure has remained
stagnant during the last two years at around 13 per cent. Hence, the role of private sector
assumes greater importance in the context of infrastructure development.
Health of the corporate balance sheet
External borrowings of the corporate sector have increased substantially in the last decade,
in part due to the falling implicit cost of the external commercial borrowings (ECBs). While
the external debt could help the corporate sector diversify the funding sources, excessive
reliance on the same could pose balance sheet risks when the availability of funding liquidity
is subject to sharp volatility in the international markets, making the debt rollovers difficult or
rollovers are possible only at high interest rates. A Standard & Poor's (S&P) forecast in June
2012 had warned that more than half of the 48 companies that are due to redeem an
estimated US$ 5 billion of convertible bonds in 2012 may default, while the others may
redeem by borrowing at high cost or stiffer terms. The recent phenomenon of sharp
fluctuation in the exchange rate, particularly sharp depreciation of Rupee has imparted
severe pressure on the profitability of many Indian firms having large foreign exchange
obligations. A well-developed domestic corporate bond market could, thus, reduce such
vulnerability of our corporates to both currency and liquidity risks besides reducing our
external sector vulnerabilities as share of ECBs as per cent of our foreign exchange reserves
has been declining in the recent years. A perusal of the various sources of raising resources
in the domestic market reveals that the large non-financial corporates have been raising only
about 4 per cent through the debt route while the bank borrowings and foreign currency
borrowings account for 17.8 per cent and 3.2 per cent respectively as on March 31, 2011.
Financial inclusion of the SMEs and retail investors
Corporate debt can provide our SMEs with an avenue for sourcing funds. Since this would
require rating and would result in greater external scrutiny, it would help SMEs become more
transparent and follow proper accounting, governance and disclosure practices. It would also
increase their understanding of this important market for sourcing funds in addition to banks
and other alternative funding options. It is expected that Chambers of Commerce and SME
associations would take this up on a priority basis so that our SMEs too could access the
corporate debt market in the coming years as has been the experience in the US, Europe
and some Asian countries. This would also go a long way in fulfilling our financial inclusion
objectives for the SMEs, most of whom, as we know, do not have access to formal financial
sector. Corporate debt can also provide an excellent long term investment avenue for retail
investors, who lack knowledge and understanding of this important asset class. One hopes
that, market bodies, such as, the Fixed Income Money Market and Derivatives Association of
India (FIMMDA), the Primary Dealer Association of India (PDAI), etc. together with the stock
exchanges take up the task of spreading awareness with all sincerity that it deserves. This is
very relevant as Indian households have one of the highest savings rate in the world but the
household wealth in India is generally parked in bank deposits, gold and real estate with
almost negligible investment in corporate bonds. If retail investors prefer to invest in shares
of certain companies, there should be no reason why they should be hesitant to also
consider investing in its debt.
Financial stability
Various financial crises have highlighted that even well regulated, supervised, capitalized
and managed banking systems may have limitations in mitigating financial vulnerabilities.
The crises have underscored that the banking systems cannot be the predominant source of
long-term investment capital without making an economy vulnerable to external shocks. Alan
Greenspan had argued that bond markets could act like a "spare tyre", substituting for bank
lending as a source of corporate funding at times when banks' balance sheets are weak and
banks are rationing credit. The capital inflows to the country through ECBs, while helping the
country fund the current account deficits and corporate to raises resources at a lower cost,
could become a source of the transmission of severe external shocks to the domestic
economy. Therefore, it is important to develop the domestic corporate bond market to enable
corporates to meet a substantial part of their funds requirement domestically. Further, credit
flow to infrastructure sector by banks has grown manifold in last few years. There is,
however, a risk of exposure attached to banks with such long term financing considering
ALM mismatch. Moreover, banks' ability to withstand stress is critical, especially in the
context of the recent increase in banks' non-performing assets on account of their exposure
to the infrastructure sector. Bond markets also aids financial stability by spreading credit risks
across the economy and thereby shielding the banking sectors in times of stress. Further, a
well-developed bond market can also help banks raise funds to strengthen their
balance-sheets. Viewed in the above context, a vibrant debt market is critical to meet the
funding requirement for infrastructure sector. Hence, going forward, there is a need to
increase the reliance on the corporate bond financing so as to reduce macro-economic
vulnerability to shocks and mitigate systemic risks.
Development of municipal bond market
According to the High Powered Expert Group Committee (Chairperson: Dr. Isher Judge
Ahluwalia) India will need to invest ₹39,187 billion between 2012 and 2031 to meet its urban
infrastructure requirements. Municipal bonds could be an important source of financing this
requirement. Since 1997, only 25 municipal bond issues have taken place in India mobilising
only ₹14 billion. An active corporate bond market could enable market for municipal bonds
issued by the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs). In this context, a World Bank study (October
2011) on "Developing a Regulatory Frame work for Municipal Borrowing in India" has
focused on such bonds. Keeping in view sustainability it has recommended that there should
be interest cap on such bonds and they should be treated as tax-free bonds in the same
manner as other tax free instruments. The study has also recommended that a new asset
class called "rated municipal securities" needs to be added instead of "non-government
securities" to both the IRDA and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority's
(PFRDA) investment guidelines.
B. Growth of Indian debt market
Recommendations of various committees have been implemented by the respective
regulators to promote debt market in India. The growth of corporate bond market in India has
been aided by existence of a well-developed G-sec market which provides a benchmark
yield curve for bond pricing, a well-functioning depository system, credible system of rating
agencies and adequate legal framework. Measures, such as, rationalising the listing norms,
standardisation of market conventions, reduction in the shut period, setting up of reporting
platforms, and implementation of DvP settlement of corporate bond trades have had an
encouraging impact on the market resulting in considerable increase in issuance as well as
secondary market trading of corporate bonds. Total issuance has increased from
₹1,747.81 billion in 2008-09 to ₹2,968.94 billion in 2011-12. Similarly trade volume has
increased from ₹1,481.66 billion in 2008-09 to ₹5,937.83 billion in 2011-12. During the
current fiscal year up to September 2012, the trade volumes have been ₹3261.14 billion. The
share of bonds issued through public issues has increased from 0.86 per cent in 2008-09 to
7.3 per cent in 2011-12. Out of the four modes of resource mobilisation namely, IPOs,
FPOs, bonds and rights issues, the share of bonds have increased from 9.2 per cent in
2008-09 to 73.5 per cent in 2011-12 indicating greater reliance of entities on bonds for
resource mobilisation in the recent period.
C. Structure of corporate debt market in India
The primary market for corporate debt is mainly dominated by private placements (93 per
cent of total issuance in 2011-12) as corporates prefer this route to public issues because of
operational ease, i.e., minimum disclosures, low cost, tailor made structures and speed of
raising funds. Banks/FIs (42.3 per cent of total issuances) followed by finance companies
(26.4 per cent) were the major issuers in 2011-12. India lacks a long-term debt market for
pure project finance. Corporate bonds issued in India usually carry a rating of AAA indicating
lack of interest in bonds of lower rated borrowers in the debt market. Institutional participants,
such as, banks, primary dealers, mutual funds, insurance companies, pension funds,
corporates, etc. are the major players in this market. Retail investors are also gradually
entering this market. Their participation is, however, minuscule. As regards regulation of
corporate debt market, the regulatory involvement is clearly delineated between the Reserve
Bank of India and the SEBI. Reserve Bank is responsible for the market for repo transactions
and OTC credit derivatives besides framing prudential regulations for banks, etc. in respect
of their exposure to corporate bonds. In all other cases, SEBI has the regulatory jurisdiction
except in case of unlisted privately placed bonds.
D. Measures taken to develop the corporate bond market
Government, SEBI and other stakeholders have initiated several measures to develop the
corporate debt market. Reserve Bank of India has also taken various initiatives in this regard.
Some of these are recounted below:
i. To promote transparency in corporate debt market, a reporting platform was
developed by FIMMDA and it was mandated that all RBI-regulated entities should
report the OTC trades in corporate bonds on this platform. Other regulators have
also prescribed such reporting requirement in respect of their regulated entities. This
has resulted in building a credible database of all the trades in corporate bond
market providing useful information for regulators and market participants.
ii. Clearing houses of the exchanges have been permitted to have a pooling fund
account with RBI to facilitate DvP-I based settlement of trades in corporate bonds.
iii. Repo in corporate bonds was permitted under a comprehensive regulatory
framework.
iv. Banks were permitted to classify their investments in non-SLR bonds issued by
companies engaged in infrastructure activities and having a minimum residual
maturity of seven years under the Held to Maturity (HTM) category;
v. The provisioning norms for banks for infrastructure loan accounts have been
relaxed.
vi. The exposure norms for PDs have been relaxed to enable them to play a larger role
in the corporate bond market.
vii. Credit Default Swaps (CDS) have been introduced on corporate bonds since
December 01, 2011 to facilitate hedging of credit risk associated with holding
corporate bonds and encourage investors participation in long term corporate
bonds.
viii. FII limit for investment in corporate bonds has been raised by additional US$ five
billion on November 18, 2011 taking the total limit to US$ 20 billion to attract foreign
investors into this market. In addition to the limit of US$ 20 billion, a separate limit of
US$ 25 billion has been provided for investment by FIIs in corporate bonds issued
by infrastructure companies. Further, additional US$ one billion has been provided
to the Qualified Financial Institutions (QFI).
ix. The terms and conditions for the scheme for FII investment in infrastructure debt
and the scheme for non-resident investment in Infrastructure Development Funds
(IDFs) have been further rationalised in terms of lock-in period and residual maturity;
and
x. Further, as a measure of relaxation, QFIs have been now allowed to invest in those
MF schemes that hold at least 25 per cent of their assets (either in debt or equity or
both) in the infrastructure sector under the current US$ three billion sub-limit for
investment in mutual funds related to infrastructure.
xi. Revised guidelines have been issued for securitisation of standard assets so as to
promote this market. The guidelines focus on twin objectives of development of
bond market as well as provide investors a safe financial product. The interest of the
originator has been aligned with the investor and suitable safeguards have been
designed.
xii. Banks have been given flexibility to invest in unrated bonds of companies engaged
in infrastructure activities within the overall ceiling of 10 per cent;
xiii. Bank has issued detailed guidelines on setting up of IDFs by banks and NBFCs. It is
expected that IDFs will accelerate and enhance the flow of long-term debt for
funding the ambitious programme of infrastructure development in our country.
E. Issues and challenges in Corporate Bond Market
While the measures taken so far have generated the momentum needed to develop the
market, the indicators are suggesting that the market is yet to develop to its potential in
relation to needs of our macro-economy. The size of the Indian corporate bond market at
11.8 per cent of GDP is lower than the average for Emerging East Asia and for Japan at
17.2 and 19.8 per cent respectively. There are potential risks associated with this market,
such as, absence of robust bankruptcy framework, insufficient liquidity, narrow investor base,
refinancing risk, lack of better market facilities and standardisation. Some of the issues and
challenges which need attention are:
i. Taking measures to improve liquidity, such as, consolidation of particularly the
privately placed bonds, etc;
ii. Setting up a suitable framework for market making in corporate bonds;
iii. Providing tools to manage credit, market and liquidity risks {e.g. CDS, Interest Rate
Futures (IRF), Repo in corporate bonds, etc.};
iv. Introducing a suitable institutional mechanism for credit enhancement to enable
SMEs and other corporates with lower credit rating to access the corporate bond
market;
v. Developing a smooth yield curve for the government securities market for efficient
pricing of the corporate bonds;
vi. Enhancing transparency by setting up of centralised database for tracking rating
migration, issue size, etc.;
vii. Increase the scope of investment by provident/pension/gratuity funds and insurance
companies in corporate bonds;
viii. Calibrated opening of the corporate bond market to the foreign investors;
ix. Developing safe and sound market infrastructure;
x. Establishing a sound bankruptcy regime;
xi. Rationalization of stamp duty across states;
xii. Developing the securitization market under the new regulatory framework;
xiii. Wider participation of retail investors in the market through stock exchanges and
mutual funds.
I would briefly touch upon some of these issues, particularly those with which the Reserve
Bank is connected directly or indirectly.
Improving liquidity
Low liquidity is an issue that needs to be addressed urgently. Several reports have
suggested consolidation of the corporate bond issues through reissues to promote liquidity.
We need to make a beginning in this area by involving PSUs and large corporate with
significant volumes of bonds outstanding in devising a suitable scheme of consolidation of
their issues. There are suggestions to the effect that in respect of regular issuers that there
could be restriction on the number of securities they can issue in a year so that reissues
would become necessity.
Market making
Banks and PDs have played the role of market making in the G-Sec with reasonable success
and we need to explore the possibility of replicating the experience in the corporate debt
market as well, albeit with the realisation that primary dealers would be exposed to greater
credit risk if they carry a sufficiently large inventory of corporate bonds that is needed for
market making. Moreover their limitation to increase exposure to corporate bonds with the
context of growing issuance size of Government bonds has to be kept in view. Some
suggestions to incentivise PDs for market making are, however, being discussed with the
stakeholders. Further, there is a need for a debate on creation of a separate
agency/institution to promote market making in corporate bonds, on the lines of institutions
established to promote government securities market.
Credit derivatives
In the context of development of the corporate bond market and promoting infrastructure
funding, CDS has been introduced with all safeguard, such as, not allowing naked CDS for
the users, mandating position limits for the market makers, compulsory reporting of
transactions to the trade repository in CCIL, etc. and high expectations. CDS could provide
an avenue for participants to mitigate credit risk and enable effective redistribution of credit
risk within the system. With the necessary infrastructure that included trade repository,
documentation, publication of CDS curve for valuation, standardisation of contracts, etc. in
place, participants were permitted to enter into CDS with effect from December 1, 2011.
Though the guidelines were framed after detailed discussions with the market participants,
only few trades have taken place since the launch of the product. Some of the reasons being
attributed are difficulty in signing separate Credit Support Annex (CSA for India),
nonavailability of netting benefits and posting of collateral on daily basis. Bothe SEBI and IRDA
are likely to permit their regulated entities to participate in CDS as users soon. These are not
major operational issues and should not deter market participants from undertaking trades.
Stringent capital adequacy guidelines are also being termed as stumbling block. Since CDS
is a complex derivative product and downside risk is very high, Reserve Bank intends to
follow a cautious and gradual approach in the nascent stage of development of the market.
As for as capital adequacy guidelines are concerned, Reserve Bank has broadly followed
Basel norms. Hence, it is imperative that market participants use the product to suit their
business and risk management requirements.
Interest rate derivatives
Interest rate derivatives (IRD) products like Interest Rate Swaps (IRS) and IRF enable
market participants to hedge their interest rate risk and take a trading call in the market,
leading to the development of the underlying cash market in terms of enhancing liquidity and
price discovery. Thus, success of IRDs will be key to the development of corporate debt
market. Though the market for IRS has evolved over the past decade and is fairly liquid with
average daily trade volumes comparable with the volume traded in the G-Sec market, same
is not true for exchange traded IRF. Reserve Bank is examining the recommendations made
by Working Group on "Enhancing Liquidity in G-Sec and Interest Rate Derivatives Market"
(Chairman: R. Gandhi) relating to introducing IRF based on overnight call borrowing rate, fine
tuning the product design of the delivery-based 10-yr IRF by permitting single-bond
contracts, larger contract size, etc. to revive IRF market. As regards IRS, Reserve Bank has
already taken various initiatives like setting up of a reporting platform for IRS transactions
and enabling non-guaranteed central clearing of IRS trades. The process for introduction of
guaranteed settlement of IRS transactions is underway. It is expected that market
participants will make use of various IRD products for hedging interest rate risk in their
portfolio. There is also a need for altering the skewed participation profile in the IRS market
given that majority of the participants are foreign and private sector banks with miniscule
interest from public sector banks.
Repo in corporate debt
Among the various initiatives taken by RBI, introduction of repo in corporate bonds has been
one that is aimed to impart secondary market liquidity to the corporate bond market. The
guidelines permitting repo incorporate bonds were issued in March 2010 and the same were
fine-tuned in December 2010. However, except for a handful of trades, the market has not
taken off. The reasons cited for lack of interest include non-signing of the Global Market
Repo Agreement (GMRA), lack of lenders, such as, mutual funds and insurance companies
in repo market, etc. Reserve Bank is engaging with other regulators to address these issues.
While SEBI has permitted the mutual funds to participate in this repo market, authorisation
from IRDA is expected soon. There is a view that an exchange traded tripartite repo structure
could enhance attractiveness of corporate bonds and improve trading volumes. There are,
however, concerns, among others, relating to the capacity of central counterparty (CCP) to
handle the risk, particularly given the low level of liquidity in the underlying cash market and
liquidity accessing capacity of the CCP under extreme situations when settlement obligations
have to be met in an orderly manner. The efficacy of these instruments (CDS, IRF and repo)
hinges around the crucial issue of whether market participants would use the instrument to
hedge risks or they remain as available instruments not used. Though all these instruments
were introduced after having detailed consultation with the market participants, it is rather
perplexing for regulator to find almost no activity in these instruments. It is hence necessary
that the market participants make best use of the product.
Credit enhancement - bank guarantee
Other issue which market has been demanding is allowing banks to provide credit
enhancement/partial credit enhancement to corporate bonds by means of guarantee, credit
facility, liquidity facility, etc. The measure may appear to be expedient but the underlying
objective of de-risking the bank balance sheets through development of corporate debt
market will not be met as such a product will place the entire risk on the banking system.
Further, banks providing credit enhancements/partial credit enhancement like issuing
guarantees for corporate bonds will distort the pricing of the corporate bonds, discourage
institutional and retail investors to appraise and assume credit risk and add to the
reputational and financial risk of banks. Further, if guarantees are offered by public sector
banks, investors tend to form an impression that the bonds have implicit Government
support. Thus, provision of bank guarantee will impinge on the genuine development of
corporate bond market. In fact there is hardly any parallel in the world of credit
enhancements being provided by the banking sector to corporate bonds. In this regard, some
structure for partial credit enhancement, outside banking, could, however, be considered.
Under the extant regulations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), entities like
multi-lateral/regional financial institutions, government and financial institutions, foreign
equity holders, etc. have been enabled to provide credit enhancement and for this guarantee
fees up to 200 bps could be paid by the Indian issuers. Some international and domestic
financial institutions have in fact shown some interest in this regard and these initiatives
could be taken forward.
Smooth sovereign yield curve
The absence of a risk-free term structure of interest rates makes it difficult to price credit risk
of instruments issued by the private sector and quasi-sovereign. In the Indian context,
however, with issuance of Government bonds for different maturities up to 30 years the
sovereign risk free curve does exists. There is, however, an issue relating to having a
smooth yield as also almost flat nature of the curve beyond 10 years since trading is confined
to a few points, particularly in the 10 to 14 year segment. Fixed Income and Money Market
Derivatives Association( FIMMDA) has, however, taken steps to create a yield curve by
taking available trade data from different points and applying the Cubic Spline interpolation
model for smoothening the yield curve. In addition to passive consolidation being adopted by
the Reserve Bank over the years, it is, in consultation with the Government, considering the
process for active consolidation involving buybacks/switch operations besides regular
issuances at different points of the curve.
Enhancing transparency
It is desirable that the level of information dissemination available in G-Sec and money
market is replicated in corporate debt market. This is required as there is paucity of
information on individual issuances as there is no comprehensive database (though one
private firm collects quite a bit of data) which constrains policy-making. The proposed
measures of SEBI to simplify the disclosure norms for debt listing will definitely improve the
situation. However, there is an urgent need to design and create such centralised database
with more details like issue size, option availability, rating, etc. for better market transparency
and improve regulation. It may also be noted that there is also a bias towards issuance of
bonds through private placement which is not a very transparent method and thus, is
impacting the secondary market liquidity in corporate debt. Hence, there is need to
encourage public issuance of bonds.
Relaxing investment restrictions
Keeping in view the long term funding requirements of infrastructure sector, insurance,
provident funds (PFs) and pension companies are best suited for making investment in such
bonds. Hence, there is a need to revisit the investment guidelines of such institutional
investors since the existing mandates of most of these institutions do not permit large
investment in corporate bonds. Prudential requirements of the sectoral regulations would,
however, need to be balanced with the need for a developed bond market which ultimately
would be in the interest of all the financial market participants.
Expanding access to the foreign investors
There is a growing demand to open up the corporate debt market and, in particular
infrastructure debt segment to the FIIs/QFIs. There is also a demand for fiscal concession to
the FIIs. It has to be kept in view that based on our experience and lessons learnt from the
global financial crisis, we have adopted a cautious approach. Nevertheless, the limits and
conditions for investments by the FIIs have been liberalized particularly for the infrastructure
bond as mentioned in para 12 above. The limits available so far, however, have not been
used up significantly. The recent announcement regarding reduced withholding tax to five per
cent for foreign currency denominate infrastructure bonds and its likely extension for the
Rupee infrastructure bond investments by the FIIs may lead to greater utilization of the
available limits.
Settlement systems/ trading platform
The success of order matching trading platform in G-Sec market can act as guidance for
setting up of order-matching trading platforms for the corporate debt market. Considering that
the trading platforms on exchanges are non-functional, a quote driven anonymous screen
based trading platform could possibly bring about the desired focus on trading in corporate
debt market due to reduction in transact