After equities and mutual funds, it’s time for bond SIPs

Selecting bonds and deciding when to exit remains a major challenge for individual investors
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For many years, Indian investors have linked systematic investment plans (SIPs) mainly with stocks and mutual funds. Regularly investing a set sum has become a key pillar of wealth building. Today, that disciplined method is extending to fixed income via Bond SIPs, giving individual investors a systematic way to enter the corporate bond market.

The timing is ideal. Over the past few years, retail involvement in India’s corporate bond market has surged, thanks to regulatory changes and the expansion of SEBI‑registered online bond platform providers (OBPPs). Trading activity in the secondary market rose from about 1.1 million deals in FY25 to roughly 2.9 million in FY26, showing growing acceptance of bonds among individual investors. This trend is persisting into the present fiscal year.

A few OBPPs, such as IndiaBonds and Grip Invest, have launched Bond SIPs to make fixed‑income investing easier. The approach resembles mutual‑fund SIPs: investors pledge a regular sum and steadily accumulate a varied bond portfolio rather than putting a large amount into one security at once.

“The strategy is not meant to replace equity SIPs but to complement them,” said Vishal Goenka, co‑founder of Indiabonds. He explained that Bond SIPs solve a key hurdle for newcomers to the bond market: picking the right securities. Many individual investors are drawn to bonds yet feel uncertain about which issuers, maturities or credit ratings to choose. By following a systematic plan, they gain exposure to a range of bonds over time, which helps spread risk across different issuers and sectors.

Most Bond SIP products follow two main approaches. The first targets higher yields, usually investing in bonds rated from A to BBB+, which offer indicative returns of 10‑12 %. By contributing ₹10,000 each month, an investor can steadily accumulate positions in several issuers over twelve months, lowering concentration risk while aiming for better yields.

The second approach emphasizes moderate yields, concentrating on AAA‑ to AA‑rated bonds that typically deliver 7.5‑9.5 %. For instance, allocating ₹1 lakh per month lets an investor construct a portfolio that favours capital safety and credit quality over chasing the highest possible yield.

Selecting bonds and deciding when to exit remain major obstacles for individual investors. Bond SIPs tackle the selection issue by providing diversification, while platforms are now concentrating on easing the exit process. Many are enhancing their demat infrastructure to make bond trades smoother and boost liquidity in the secondary market. Experts anticipate that, as dedicated demat‑centric ecosystems mature, retail investors will find it considerably simpler to sell bonds prior to maturity.

“The appeal is especially strong now that investors seek alternatives to equities after a spell of market turbulence,” Goenka added. Fixed‑income securities provide predictable cash flows and can add stability to a portfolio. In contrast to debt mutual funds, where holders possess units of a pooled fund, Bond SIPs let investors own the actual bonds outright, offering clearer insight into issuers, maturities and coupon payments, he noted.

As technology platforms enhance access and awareness, bonds are shifting from the realm of institutional players into mainstream retail portfolios. Similar to how mutual‑fund SIPs opened up equity investing to the masses, Bond SIPs may represent the next stride toward constructing balanced portfolios that blend the growth upside of stocks with the steadiness of fixed income.

Published on July 22, 2026