The debt market in India is a very opaque and illiquid one. There are less than 50 institutional players, if we leave aside banks, which are compelled to hold government securities and use ‘investment’ exposure as a way to bypass credit exposure norms. Such a market structure creates problems.

 

Last year, debt papers of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL), Essel group and...

Rating agency ICRA recently downgraded the credit ratings of five debt mutual fund (MF) schemes belonging to asset management companies of UTI, Principal and Aditya Birla Sun Life. The rating agency cited deteriorating credit quality of the underlying investments in the schemes, as rationale for the downgrades. The shocking part is that UTI Banking and PSU Debt scheme was downgraded from...