- India’s capital markets run on a single, invisible ledger - and National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) built it. It was created in 1996 as the country’s first electronic depository, replacing paper share certificates with digital book entries and becoming the trusted record-keeper for almost every security that matters. Today it holds an 86.1% market share of total demat custody value - close to $5 trillion - and its approach has been the same from the start: build the infrastructure, earn a small fee on everything that sits on it, and then layer on services that make the infrastructure stickier.
Business segments
Three engines built on the same core asset - a depository that is the system of record for Indian securities, a payments bank that moves money for the masses, and a data-management unit that digitises insurance and identity - each one feeding off the trust and distribution of the first.
1. The depository: India’s central securities vault
NSDL is the dominant custodian of Indian financial assets, holding 86% of the country’s dematerialised wealth and collecting a small, recurring fee on almost all of it.
- Custody is the moat - it holds ₹477.3 lakh crore (about $5 trillion) in securities, giving it an 86.1% market share by custody value, and that custody generates an annual fee from every listed and unlisted company, mutual fund, and bond issuer whose securities sit in its vault.
- Paid on every corporate action - when a company issues a dividend, bonus, or rights offering, NSDL processes the event and takes a fee; in FY2025 it handled 7,88,623 such events, moving 1,32,215 crore securities through the system.
- A settlement toll on every trade - it charges Depository Participants (DPs) ₹4 per debit transaction whenever securities move between accounts, so every market and off-market transfer generates revenue.
- Distribution through 294 gatekeepers - it does not reach investors directly; instead, 294 DPs - banks, brokers, and custodians - operate more than 57,000 service centres across 2,000 cities, and NSDL has been actively adding fintech brokers and winning exclusive DP relationships.
- The unlisted-company franchise is nearly uncontested - it holds a 73% market share in unlisted issuer equity and 89.6% by demat value for unlisted companies, a segment where the rival depository has almost no presence.
2. The payments bank: a transaction factory on top of the depository’s distribution
NSDL Payments Bank turns low-cost deposit float and high-volume payment processing into a fee engine, using the same bank-led DP network that feeds the depository.
- Float is the raw material - the bank gathers low-cost CASA (current and savings account) deposits that crossed ₹500 crore, and the interest earned on that float provides a steady revenue base that grows with every new account.
- A UPI acquirer at scale - it processed ₹519.2 billion in UPI transactions in FY26 and ranked 7th among the top 15 banks as a payee PSP app, with volumes growing six times over the prior year.
- Cash-out via a million agents - through the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS), it has roughly 1 million agents and processed ₹617.4 billion in cash withdrawals, ranking 2nd among the top 33 banks in AePS transaction value.
- Gross-level economics with operating leverage - the bank recognises revenue at the gross transaction value with corresponding expenses, so as volumes rise, the fixed-cost base stays light and profits scale.
3. Database management: the registry and e-governance layer
NSDL Database Management (NDML) runs a collection of regulated registry businesses - insurance, KYC, and shareholder records - that turn official data into recurring fee streams.
- The insurance vault - its National Insurance Repository holds about 15.4 million digitised policies with a 36% market share, and it added roughly 33.5 lakh policies in FY26 alone.
- KYC as a service - as a SEBI-registered KYC Registration Agency, it holds 19.8 million verified identity records serving 1,925 financial intermediaries, making it one of the country’s largest KYC utilities.
- Shareholder record-keeping - it is a SEBI-registered Registrar and Transfer Agent serving 9,661 cumulative issuers and 27,595 ISINs, handling the back-office work of primary-market transactions.
- Niche government platforms - it runs SEZ Online, a transaction platform for Special Economic Zones serving 6,174 units, and the National Skill Registry, which holds background-verification records for 2.55 million IT professionals.
Group structure and partners
NSDL is a holding company where the standalone depository generates roughly 90% of consolidated profit, with two operating subsidiaries and a strategic stake in India’s international bullion exchange adding the rest.
- NSDL Database Management Limited (NDML) is a wholly owned subsidiary housing the insurance repository, KRA, RTA, and e-governance platforms.
- NSDL Payments Bank Limited (NPBL) is directly and indirectly held by NSDL (95.05%), with Protean eGov Technologies holding the remaining 4.95%; the RBI designated it a Scheduled Payments Bank in July 2025, giving it access to central-bank liquidity and clearing.
- India International Bullion Holding IFSC Limited (IIBH) is an associate where NSDL holds a 20% stake, having invested ₹50 crore; IIBH owns the India International Bullion Exchange and a majority stake in an international depository that NSDL supplied with its core software system.
- NSDL itself listed on the BSE in August 2025 through a ₹4,010.95 crore offer for sale by existing shareholders, with no fresh capital raised.
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