A closer look at how online bond platforms are reshaping retail investing

Online bond platforms (OBPs), launched in 2022 to ease investor entry into the bond market, are seeing a sharp rise in activity. Monthly transaction volumes have tripled—from around ₹500 crore last year to ₹1,500 crore now, according to industry executives.

“Till last year, the minimum ticket size for bonds used to be ₹1 lakh. A few quarters ago, Sebi reduced the face value to ₹10,000 to allow retail investors to try this new asset class. This has led to strong adoption,” said Anshul Gupta, co-founder of Wint Wealth, a Sebi-registered online bond platform.

The shift is visible in RFQ (request-for-quote) trades, the exchange mechanism OBPs use to route orders. As per NSE data, RFQ trades rose from 43,000 in April 2025 to over 1.54 lakh in October 2025.

OBPs act as marketplaces for corporate bonds, offering retail investors access with a starting investment of ₹10,000. India now has 44 such platforms.

Here is a look at how OBPs facilitate investor access to the corporate bond market.

Easy account setup

Opening an account on an OBP is a fully digital process. An investor begins by selecting a platform and registering with basic details such as a mobile number and email. The platform then completes KYC verification using PAN and Aadhaar-based authentication.

Because listed bonds must be held in dematerialized form, the next step is to link an existing demat account or open a new one.

Once the demat and bank details are added and disclosures e-signed, the investor can browse available bonds, compare yields and pricing, and place buy/sell orders via the RFQ system.

Transparent order routing

These platforms operate through a structured, exchange-linked mechanism that offers transparency. At the centre of every transaction lies the RFQ system, an electronic channel through which investors can seek and receive quotes on debt securities.

Once an investor has a demat account in place, you can place the order, the platform pulls up quotes, matches the order, and routes the trade to the exchange for settlement through the respective clearing corporation.

Through RFQ, a transaction is reported automatically to the reporting platform or respective exchanges—Corporate Bond Reporting and Integrated Clearing System (CBRICS) for NSE and NDS-RST for BSE.

After this, the investor needs to transfer the investment amount in the clearing account of the respective exchange’s clearing corporations—Indian Clearing Corporation Ltd (ICCL) for BSE and NSE Clearing Ltd (NSECL) for NSE.

Once the amount and bid bond quantity are tallied, the investment amount is transferred to the seller, and bonds are transferred to the buyer’s demat account. This flow ensures uniformity and traceability across platforms.

Selling made simple

To sell, the investor again needs to use the RFQ mechanism on OBP. Depending on the OBP, the investor can use the OTO (one-to-one) or OTM (one-to-many) RFQ mechanism.

“We facilitate direct buying from clients, as well as offer to get them buyers when they are looking to sell," said Vishal Goenka, co-founder of IndiaBonds, a Sebi-registered online bond platform.


In an OTO RFQ, the platform sends the investor’s sell request to a single counterparty—often the OBP itself—which can choose to buy the bond at a quoted price. This method is quick but limits price discovery because only one buyer is involved, and if that buyer declines, the investor may not get an exit.

In contrast, an OTM RFQ sends the same quote request to multiple market participants at once, allowing several potential buyers to respond. This broadens the scope for competitive pricing and improves the chances of finding a buyer.

Where the demat account is linked, selling the bond will be slightly different.

“When the seller chooses to sell on our platform, we provide the price at which there is buying interest for the bond. Then the seller goes to his broking account, places the sell order at the price given by us, the order matches and bond is sold,” explains Nikhil Aggarwal, founder & group CEO of Grip Invest, a Sebi-registered online bond platform.

Understanding bond pricing

Understanding pricing is another key part of navigating OBPs. Platforms display both clean and dirty prices of bonds.

Dirty price vs clean price

The dirty price reflects the total outgo for the buyer, including accrued interest since the last coupon payment.

The clean price isolates the bond’s intrinsic value based purely on interest-rate movements. Since yields and clean prices move inversely, it is the clean price that allows investors to gauge a bond’s yield to maturity and compare it with other options.

Exchanges typically display only the dirty price, making the clean-price visibility on OBPs particularly useful.

For instance, a bond with a 10% coupon rate and a face value of ₹1,000 might sell for a higher price (say ₹1,050) if yields fall to 9%, or for a lower price (say ₹950) if yields rise to 11%. When the yield matches the coupon rate, the clean price equals the face value.

Key takeaways

Bond transactions on OBPs has picked up pace. However, investors need to be careful, when picking a bond. While corporate bonds are fixed income instruments, investing in a company’s bond with weak financial strength could make it more susceptible to default risk.

“Retail investors can easily end up picking up a bond offering the highest yield, expecting high returns. But they may be overlooking the fact that higher yield may mean higher credit risk,” points out Joydeep Sen, a corporate trainer (financial markets) and author.

“Investors can check the risk level of the bond by seeing the credit ratings, which OBPs are required to disclose. Besides this, investors can also gauge risk from the business group the company belongs to. With all things being equal, a company that is part of a larger and stronger business group, would be less risky,” he added.

If you can’t directly judge the risk and return potential of a bond, you can opt for a debt mutual fund that invests in corporate bonds.

Make sure you transact only on Sebi-registered online bond platforms if you wish to invest in corporate bonds directly.