National Securities Depository Limited

National Securities Depository Limited is a central securities depository that underpins India’s post-trade market infrastructure by enabling electronic holding, transfer, and settlement of a wide spectrum of securities. It was established in 1996 following the Depositories Act to replace paper-based settlement with dematerialised accounts accessed via a nationwide network of depository participants. The institution safeguards and records ownership for asset classes spanning listed and unlisted equities, mutual funds and other pooled vehicles, corporate and government debt, sovereign gold bonds, commercial paper, and electronic gold receipts, serving investors, issuers, brokers, custodians, clearing corporations, and other intermediaries. By centralising book-entry transfers and corporate action processing, it reduces operational risk, improves settlement efficiency, and lowers transaction costs across India’s capital markets. As one of the country’s foundational market infrastructure institutions, it has grown to handle the majority of demat securities by value and supports large-scale digital initiatives such as e-settlement services and newer platforms for bond issuance and monitoring.