The Reserve Bank on Monday issued a scheme ‘RBI Retail Direct’, a one-stop solution to facilitate investment in government securities by individual investors.

No fee will be charged for opening and maintaining ‘Retail Direct Gilt account’ with the RBI. However, fee for payment gateway, as applicable, will be borne by the registered investor.

As part of the central bank’s ongoing efforts to increase retail participation in government securities, the ‘RBI Retail Direct’ facility was announced in February 2021 for improving ease of access by retail investors through online access to the government securities market – both primary and secondary – along with the facility to open their gilt securities account (‘Retail Direct’) with the RBI.

“Retail investors (individuals) will have the facility to open and maintain the RDG account with the RBI,” the central financial institution stated. “RDG accounts can be opened through an online portal provided for the purpose of the scheme.”

RBI is not going to cost any payment for sustaining an RDG Account. Using the RDG account, a saver should buy from the first market, which is hitherto dominated by bond homes or institutional traders. However, they will have to pay a payment gateway fee, as applicable.

Registered investors could also use the online portal to access to primary issuance of government securities, as well as access to NDS-OM. NDS-OM refers to RBI’s screen-based, anonymous electronic order matching system for trading in government securities in the secondary market.

The date of commencement of the scheme will be announced at a later date, RBI said in a statement on Monday.

The scheme of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Retail Direct has been formulated as a one-stop solution to facilitate investment in government securities by individual investors,” it said.

Retail investors can register under the scheme and maintain a RDG account, if they have rupee savings bank account maintained in India; Permanent Account Number (PAN), any ‘Officially Valid Document’ for KYC purpose; valid email id; and registered mobile number.

Non-Resident retail investors eligible to invest in government securities under Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 are also eligible under the scheme.

The RDG account can be opened singly or jointly with another retail investor who meets the eligibility criteria, the RBI said.