Search for better return on investment is leading the discerning among the retail investors towards investment in Government Securities (G-Secs) via the Reserve Bank of India’s retail direct (RBI-RD) facility, going by the number of accounts opened, primary market subscriptions, traded volume and total holdings so far.

The total number of accounts opened on the central bank’s retail direct portal jumped about 54 per cent year-on-year (yoy) to stand at 3,61,402 as on April 27, 2026, against 2,35,256 as on April 28, 2025.

Primary market subscriptions (cumulative) for financial instruments such as Treasury Bills, Floating Rate Savings Bonds, Central G-Secs and State G-Secs rose 35 per cent y-o-y to ₹8,736 crore as on April 27, 2026 (from ₹ 6,449 crore as on April 28, 2025.

Total traded volume in the aforementioned instruments soared 295 per cent yoy to ₹9,167 crore from ₹2,322 crore. Total holdings of these instruments rose 50 per cent yoy to ₹3,425 crore from ₹2,283 crore.

That these instruments are attractive when it comes to fetching better yields can be gauged from the fact that while a 5-10 year term deposit placed with State Bank of India will earn a depositor 6.05 per cent interest, investment in a 10-year Central G-Sec and a 10-year State G-Sec will fetch a return of 6.48 per cent (semi-annual) and about 7.70 per cent, respectively.

Venkatakrishnan Srinivasan, Founder & Managing Partner, Rockfort Fincap LLP, opined that RBI Retail Direct is increasingly emerging as a preferred investment avenue for retail investors as it brings together sovereign safety, better yields, zero cost, and a fully digital, transparent framework.

“Recent State Development Loan (SDL) auctions, particularly for long-tenor securities above 10 years, have been clearing in the 7.70%–7.80% semi annual range, offering a meaningful yield pickup over bank fixed deposits, which are largely below 7%.

“Importantly, these are sovereign-backed, zero-credit-risk instruments serviced directly by the RBI, giving investors the highest level of safety and payment assurance,” he said.

Venkatakrishnan emphasised that RBI Retail Direct is enabling retail investors to access institutional-grade fixed income opportunities with higher yields, liquidity, and complete transparency — without taking any additional credit risk. This makes it a structurally superior and increasingly preferred alternative to traditional products such as bank FDs and small savings schemes.

The ‘RBI Retail Direct’ scheme was launched on November 12, 2021. to bring G-secs within easy reach of the common man by simplifying the process of investment. Under the scheme, retail individual investors can open a Retail Direct Gilt (RDG) Account with the RBI using a dedicated online portal.

Further, a ‘RBI Retail Direct’ mobile application was launched two years ago, offering retail investors a single sign-on facility for seamless navigation between primary market and secondary market modules of the application.

Last year, unified payments interface (UPI) single-block-and-single-debit payment mode (UPI mandate) was introduced to enable investors to pre-authorise transactions and block funds in their accounts for debits to be initiated as per the scheduled timeline for placement of bids in primary auctions.

Published on May 5, 2026