Who are Primary Dealers?

A primary dealer (PD) is an RBI registered entity that is authorized in buying and selling government securities. There are two types of primary dealers in India. Standalone primary dealers and bank primary dealers. The standalone primary dealers are either subsidiaries of scheduled commercial banks Indian subsidiaries of entities incorporated abroad or companies incorporated under companies act 1956 and are registered as Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC). The bank primary dealers are the banks who wish to undertake PD business and do not have any subsidiaries doing PD business already.