Bondtech platforms gather steam amid regulatory scrutiny

Why read this story?

Editor's note: The past five years have seen an influx of retail investors investing directly in stocks, courtesy discount brokers and apps such as Robinhood in the US and Zerodha and Groww in India. Millions of new investors have poured into equities, driven also by rising stock prices, globally, over the past decade. But some of that exuberance is coming off given the headwinds of global inflation and high commodity prices. This shift in the global macro environment—along with fixed deposit interest rates under 6% a year at major banks—might be making another asset class more appealing: the humble bond or debenture.  India’s bond markets have always been shallow, with few retail investors and high barriers for companies to raise debt this way. Both factors restrict the size of bond markets compared to equity and derivative investing. This has often been flagged as a concern by economists and financial experts, with the general refrain being that a healthy bond market would reduce companies’ dependence on bank loans. In November last year, the Reserve Bank of India launched its own platform for retail …