INVESTORS IN DEBT MARKET :

Investors are the entities who invest in fixed income instruments. The investors in such instruments are generally
Banks, Financial Institutions, Mutual Funds, Insurance companies, Provident Funds etc. The individual investors
invest to a great extent in Fixed Income products.
Banks

Collectively all the banks put together are the largest investors in the debt market. They invest in all instruments
ranging from T-Bills, CPs and CDs to GOISECs, private sector debentures etc. Banks lend to corporate sector
directly by way of loans and advances and also invest in debentures issued by the private corporate sector and
in PSU bonds.

Insurance Companies

The second largest category of investors in the debt market are the insurance companies.
Provident funds

Provident funds are estimated to be the third largest investors in the debt market. Investment guidelines for provident funds are being progressively liberalized and investment in private sector debentures is one step in this direction.

Most of the provident funds are very safety oriented and tend to give much more weightage to investment in government securities although they have been considerable investors in PSU bonds as well as state government backed issues.

Mutual funds
Mutual funds represent an extremely important category of investors. World over, they have almost surpassed banks as the largest direct collector of primary savings from retail investors and therefore as investors in the wholesale debt market. Mutual funds include the Unit Trust of India, the mutual funds set up by nationalized banks and insurance companies as well as the private sector mutual funds set up by corporates and overseas mutual fund companies.

Trusts
Trusts include religious and charitable trusts as well as statutory trusts formed by the government and quasi government bodies.

There are very few instruments in which trusts are allowed to invest. Most of the trusts invest in CDs of banks and bonds of financial institutions and units of Unit Trust of India.

Corporate Treasuries

Corporate Treasuries have become prominent investors only in the last few years. Treasuries could be either those of the public sector units or private sector companies or any other government bodies or agencies. The treasuries of PSUs as well as the governmental bodies are allowed to invest in papers issued by DFIs and banks as well as GOISECs of various maturities. However the orientation of the investments is mostly in short-term instruments or sometimes in extremely liquid long term instruments which can be sold immediately in the markets.

In complete contrast to public sector treasuries, those in the private sector invest in CDs of banks and CPs of other private sector companies, GOISECs as well as debentures of other private sector companies.

Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs)

India does not allow capital account convertibility either to overseas investors or to domestic residents. Registered FPIs are exception to this rule. FPIs have to be specifically and separately approved by SEBI for equity and debt. Each FPIs is allocated a limit every year up to which it can invest in Indian debt securities. They are also free to disinvest any of their holdings, at any point of time, without prior permission.
Retail Investors

Since January 2002, retail investors have been permitted to submit non-competitive bids at primary auction through any bank or Primary Dealers (PDs).