Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman today said that the Indian financial market ecosystem ranks among the best in the world in terms of technology and value-cum-volume aspect of trading. The Finance Minister today launched the AMC Repo Clearing Limited (ARCL) and Corporate Debt Market Development Fund (CDMDF) in Mumbai.

Addressing the gathering, Ms. Sitharaman said the sector has seen an all-round exponential growth in the last ten years. She said that India’s market capitalization ten years ago stood at 74 lakh crore rupees only. She added that it has almost doubled every 5 years since then and is reaching 300 lakh crore rupees today. She informed that India’s weight in the MSCI Emerging Markets index in 2013 was only 6.3% and today it stands at 14.6%.

The Finance Minister further said that the number of retail Demat account holders has increased from around 2 crore in 2013 to more than 11.5 crore today.

Speaking about the Mutual funds sector, she said 10 years ago, the Mutual funds industry managed assets worth 8 lakh crore rupees, while today it stands at 44 lakh crore rupees, clocking an annual growth rate of over 18 per cent.

Union Finance Minister in her speech for the Union Budget of 2021-22, announced the creation of a permanent institutional framework like the Corporate Debt Market Development Fund (CDMDF) to enhance secondary market liquidity in the Corporate Bond market during stressed and normal times. The CDMDF, with the support of Rs. 30 thousand crore in the form of a guarantee from the National Credit Guarantee Trust Company and over Rs. 3 thousand crore from the Mutual Funds Industry, will have access to capital of over Rs.33 thousand crore in the event of a stress event.

The AMC Repo Clearing Limited (ARCL) will help in deepening and widening the corporate bond repo market in India. The ARCL has been registered by SEBI and authorized by the Reserve Bank of India to provide Central Counterparty Services for repo transactions in corporate debt securities.