Purchasing RBI Floating Rate Bonds

Bonds
1

As mentioned in this press release of RBI, https://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/BS_PressReleaseDisplay.aspx?prid=50444 , in Jan 04-08 week, there will be auction of 3000Crores of Floating Rate Bonds (FRBs). Any idea how to get them. As far as I searched they are only available in banks, but i have searched in 4-5 branches and the staff has no idea what these are. Any other way to purchase them?

2

I searched for it and found an article that mentioned the following -

How to invest in these bonds?
Investment in these bonds will be in the form of cash (up to Rs 20,000)/drafts/cheques or any electronic mode acceptable to the Receiving Office. Applications for the bonds in the form of Bond Ledger Account will be received in the designated branches of SBI, nationalised banks, IDBI Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank. The bonds will be issued only in electronic form and held at the credit of the holder in an account called Bond Ledger Account, opened with the Receiving Office.

I searched for Receiving Office and found the following RBI document listing all the banks that are handling Floating Rate Savings Bonds

I searched for a few specific banks and found instructions/information for applying for these bonds -

As far as I could search, these bonds can only be purchased offline via specific bank branches

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3

you can buy online via icicibank netbanking or icicidirect

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4

thanks for your detailed search @Prayag. It definitely helped me

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5

Thanks for appreciating @Aditya_Gupta but @durgeshh indeed recommended a better alternative than my answer aka purchasing it online via ICICI Direct (if you already have an account with them)

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6

How much brokerage does ICICDIRECT charge for buying these bonds? is it 0.55%?

7

there’s no brokerage for these

8

@durgeshh I don’t think that you can do it via icici netbanking. You need to have icici direct but i don’t want to open an account with them due to high brokerage charges

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yes netbanking doesn’t seem to have the option…i’m using icicidirect only for such new schemes/bonds etc for which there’s no brokerage

10

DO they have brokerage on SGB (goldbonds)

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i’m not aware of SGB as i don’t invest in it but i guess if it’s a primary issue then there should not be any brokerage

13

@ShubhS9 : Are these pledgable ?

14

Floating Rate Bonds aren’t approved for pledging by the Clearing Corporation.

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