What is the RFQ platform? India's bond trading venue

The RFQ platform exists because India's corporate bond market used to trade on the phone. Two desks agreed a price bilaterally, the trade was reported afterwards, and nobody else saw the negotiation. Request for Quote moved that conversation onto an exchange. This guide covers what the RFQ platform is, who the initiator and responder are, which securities are eligible, who is required to route trades through it, and how settlement works. It is not investment advice.

What is the RFQ platform and where did it come from?

The legal groundwork predates the platform by seven years. SEBI introduced the framework for a dedicated debt segment by circular dated 24 January 2013, permitting stock exchanges to offer electronic screen-based trading providing for order matching, request for quote and negotiated trades. In February 2020, after SEBI approvals, both the National Stock Exchange of India Limited and BSE Limited launched RFQ platforms as extensions of their existing trade execution and settlement platforms. The stated purpose was to bring transparency to over-the-counter deals that were being negotiated bilaterally.

The current rules sit in Chapter XXII of SEBI's Master Circular for issue and listing of non-convertible securities, securitised debt instruments, security receipts, municipal debt securities and commercial paper, dated 15 October 2025.

How does a Request for Quote trade work?

The platform is a system or interface for inviting and giving quotes, and the roles have names. A participant who seeks quotes is the Initiator. A participant who acts on or responds to those requests is the Responder.

The Initiator has two choices to make before sending anything. Whether to disclose its name or stay anonymous. And whether to send the quote request to one identified counterparty, which the circular calls One to One or OTO mode, or to all participants, One to Many or OTM mode.

From there the negotiation is bilateral in substance and electronic in form. Quotes are negotiated between counterparties based on specified parameters, and acceptance of a quote is treated as mutual agreement for the deal. What the platform adds is an audit trail of every interaction: the quoted yield, the mutually agreed price and the deal terms.

Which securities are eligible on the RFQ platform?

Nine classes, which is wider than most descriptions of it suggest. Non-convertible securities. Securitised debt instruments. Municipal debt securities. Commercial paper. Certificates of deposit. Government securities. State development loans. Treasury bills. And any other instrument the stock exchanges specify in consultation with SEBI.

Two of those classes have their own money-market rulebooks at the RBI rather than SEBI, covered in what is commercial paper and what is a certificate of deposit. Eligibility to trade on an exchange platform is a separate question from where the instrument's issuance is reported, which for those two runs through a trade repository, described in what is F-TRAC.

Who has to use it?

The platform launched in February 2020 as a participant-based model, open for registration and access to all regulated entities, listed bodies corporate, institutional investors and all India financial institutions. Access alone did not produce liquidity, so mandates followed.

SEBI has mandated registered Mutual Funds and Portfolio Management Services to undertake a specified percentage of their total secondary market trades in corporate bonds through the RFQ platform of stock exchanges. IRDAI has prescribed similar stipulations for insurers. Those volume mandates, not voluntary adoption, are the reason a meaningful share of institutional corporate bond turnover in India now prints on an exchange platform.

Participation widened again after representations from market participants asking that brokers be allowed to bid for clients. SEBI decided to allow stock brokers registered under the debt segment of the stock exchanges to place or seek bids on the RFQ platform on behalf of clients, in addition to the existing option of bidding in a proprietary capacity.

There is a further routing rule that sits outside this chapter. Orders placed on an online bond platform in listed debt securities, listed municipal debt securities and listed securitised debt instruments must be routed through the RFQ platform of a recognised stock exchange and settled through the respective clearing corporation. That obligation is explained in what is an online bond platform provider.

How do RFQ trades settle, and how is yield computed?

Stock exchanges currently use the Real-Time Gross Settlement channel as the mode of settlement for trades executed on the RFQ platform in listed corporate bonds, commercial paper and securitised debt instruments. Payment mechanisms provided by banks or payment aggregators authorised by the Reserve Bank of India from time to time may additionally be used.

One computation rule is worth flagging because it changes a printed number. SEBI inserted a yield to price provision by circular dated 13 May 2025, applicable with effect from 18 August 2025. For securities traded on the RFQ platform, the cash flow dates for interest, dividend or redemption used in yield to price computation are not adjusted for day count convention. They are taken from the due date of payment in the cash flow schedule, not the date of actual payment. Two people computing a price off the same bond can otherwise disagree, and this clause settles which convention the platform uses.

The RFQ platform is the secondary-market venue in India's listed debt plumbing, sitting opposite the primary-issuance auction described in what is the Electronic Book Provider platform. The two are set side by side in EBP vs RFQ platform. Flock reports public regulatory filings with every claim sourced and dated. What any of it means for your money is your call to make.