Sops likely to boost retail investment in debt market

Sebi plans to ease norms for high-value debt listed firms

- FE BUREAU

IN A MOVE aimed at increasing retail participation in the debt market through public issues, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has proposed incentives for certain categories of retail investors and reduced compliance burden.

The incentives proposed in a consultation paper issued on Monday include sops in the form of higher coupon rate or a discount to the issue price to allottees such as senior citizens, women, armed forces personnel as well as retail subscribers.

Sebi’s analysis of recent data on public issuance of nonconvertible debentures showed that the amount raised via such issues dropped drastically in FY2025 compared to the previous year. The regulator has sought public comments on the proposal by November 17.

The regulator has also proposed a series of relaxations to ease the compliance burden for companies that have only listed their debt securities by revising the definition of corporate high-value debt listed entities (HVDLEs), and exempting smaller issuers from stringent corporate governance and related party transaction (RPT) requirements.