Along with the jump in total accounts opened, primary market subscriptions for treasury bills, floating rate savings bonds, central government dated securities, government bonds and government gold bonds through the platform also rose 37 percent year-on-year to ₹ 7,302 crore as on September 29, 2025 | Photo credit:
The total number of accounts opened on RBI’s retail direct Scheme (RDS) platform rose 82.5 percent year-on-year to 3,12,618 as on September 29, 2025, in a sign of retail investor interest amid falling deposit rates and volatile equity markets.
As of September 30, 2024, the total number of accounts opened on the RDS platform, which was launched in November 2021, stood at 1,71,269, according to RBI data.
Along with the jump in total accounts opened, primary market subscriptions for government bonds, floating rate savings bonds, central government dated securities, government bonds and government gold bonds through the platform also rose 37 percent year-on-year to ₹7,302 crore as on September 29, 2025 (₹5,329 crore as on September 30, 2024).
The total traded volume (secondary market) in the above-mentioned instruments shot up around 6.43 times to ₹5,293 crore (from ₹823 crore).
Venkatakrishnan Srinivasan, founder and managing partner of Rockfort Fincap LLP, noted that bank fixed deposits (FDs) and small savings schemes have been the traditional options for risk-averse investors and senior citizens for decades.
However, in the current environment, most good banks offer interest rates below 7 percent, which is often insufficient to manage regular household expenses, especially for retirees, who rely on interest income. Small savings programs, on the other hand, offer safety and decent returns, but come with lock-in restrictions and limited flexibility.
modern alternative
Venkatakrishnan highlighted that RBI’s RDS offers a fresh, modern alternative here – combining sovereign security, flexibility and attractive returns in a fully online format. It provides investors with a direct route to access these capabilities, which were previously only available to institutional participants.
Furthermore, given the extremely volatile stock markets, many investors are currently looking at safer fixed income investment options, making this plan very attractive.
Referring to better returns offered by instruments on the RDS platform in the current interest rate environment, the head of Rockfort Fincap LLP noted that RBI Floating Rate Savings Bonds are currently offering 8.05 percent at least until December, which is higher than most bank FDs.
Similarly, 10-year government bonds (SGS) offer an annualized return of around 7.20 percent.
Moreover, these government-backed and tradable instruments often offer a 50 to 100 basis point improvement in returns over fixed deposits. Furthermore, when liquidity in the system is tight or policy rates are high, government bonds can offer significantly better short-term returns than FDs of less than one year.
Even as the total number of accounts opened on the RDS platform has increased, the total number of registrations has more than doubled to 5,30,815 as of September 29, 2025 from 2,50,549 as of September 30, 2024.
Published on October 14, 2025
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