BSE seeks to revive wholesale debt trading platform

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the country’s oldest stock exchange, plans to revive its wholesale debt trading platform, with a waiver of annual charges and lower net worth requirements for those willing to trade on the bourse.

The exchange decided to waive off the annual subscription fee of Rs 25,000 for its wholesale debt market (WDM) trading members, BSE said in a circular. It also lowered the net worth requirement from Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 30 lakh. The transaction charges would be levied at 0.01 per cent of the traded value, or Rs 50 per trade, whichever would be lower. Also, the cumulative annual charge for any member would be capped at Rs 1 lakh.

The WDM segment allows institutional investors like banks, primary dealers and financial institutions in the country to undertake transactions in debt instruments among themselves or with non-bank clients through BSE members. BSE’s larger rival, the National Stock Exchange, has fixed the net worth requirement at Rs 2 crore for the WDM segment, while its annual subscription charges stand at Rs 1 lakh.

At the NSE, the average daily transaction value in the WDM segment is Rs 2489.49 crore for the current financial year.

For the financial ended March 31 2011, the exchange registered a net traded value of about Rs 6,00,000 crore.

While BSE figures were not available, the exchange said its WDM segment has shown “a gradual, but consistent growth in turnover in the past few years, with increased participation from the mainstream banking and institutional players.”