The Negotiated Dealing System (NDS) for electronic dealing and reporting of transactions in government securities was introduced in February 2002. It facilitates the members to submit electronically, bids or applications for primary issuance of Government Securities when auctions are conducted. NDS also provides an interface to the Securities Settlement System (SSS) of the Public Debt Office, RBI, Mumbai thereby facilitating settlement of transactions in Government Securities (both outright and repos) conducted in the secondary market. Membership to the NDS is restricted to members holding SGL and/or Current Account with the RBI, Mumbai.
In August, 2005, RBI introduced an anonymous screen based order matching module on NDS, called NDS-OM. This is an order driven electronic system, where the participants can trade anonymously by placing their orders on the system or accepting the orders already placed by other participants. NDS-OM is operated by the Clearing Corporation of India Ltd. (CCIL) on behalf of the RBI (Please see answer to the question no.19 about CCIL). Direct access to the NDS-OM system is currently available only to select financial institutions like Commercial Banks, Primary Dealers, Insurance Companies, Mutual Funds, etc. Other participants can access this system through their custodians, i.e., with whom they maintain Gilt Accounts. The custodians place the orders on behalf of their customers like the urban co-operative banks. The advantages of NDS-OM are price transparency and better price discovery.
Gilt Account holders have been given indirect access to NDS through custodian institutions. A member (who has the direct access) can report on the NDS the transaction of a Gilt Account holder in government securities. Similarly, Gilt Account holders have also been given indirect access to NDS-OM through the custodians. However, currently two gilt account holders of the same custodian are not permitted to undertake repo transactions between themselves.