Bloomberg Holds Off on India Bonds for Global Aggregate Index

Bloomberg Index Services Ltd has decided not to include Indian government bonds in its Global Aggregate Index for now. The index provider needs more time to assess operational and market infrastructure challenges. An update on this review will come by mid-2026.
Most respondents showed confidence in the long-term growth of India's government bond market. However, some raised concerns about key issues that need fixes before adding bonds to this major global investment-grade index. These include lack of fully automated trading, settlement and repatriation delays tied to post-trade taxes, and complex fund registration processes. 

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Core Infrastructure Concerns

The main issues that need to be addressed are the inability to automate the trading process completely, the long settlement delays resulting from the need to conduct post-trade tax transactions, and the complex registration process for funds. Emerging market investors, who have previously used Bloomberg's dedicated Emerging Market Indices, are particularly influenced by these limitations, but this also limits access for a broader range of Global Aggregate investors.

Stakeholder Engagement Continues

The Index Provider is committed to continuing to communicate with all stakeholders to find ways in which the current infrastructure can be improved and make the post-order process simpler. The update in 2026, will provide either a timeline for completion of actual inclusion or describe any further action necessary for the inclusion of the Indian Government Bonds.

Bond Market Infrastructure Gaps

Three main operational problems were identified in the consultation: there is no end-to-end automated trading execution, there are settlement delays from tax reconciliation, and there is a complex fund registration process requiring a lot of documentation.

The issues identified primarily apply to emerging-market investors because Bloomberg's Emerging Market Indices accept them as plausible issues. The Global Aggregate Index is available for a broader and more diverse set of investors that have significantly greater operational requirements. Therefore, these issues could create difficulties for the Global Aggregate Index in meeting the operational requirements of its investors.

The review will remain open-ended, and Bloomberg intends to engage with index end-users, intermediaries, custodians, regulators, and regulatory authorities in an effort to identify improvements to market infrastructure and business processes.

Bloomberg has made a commitment to continue consulting with stakeholders through the first half of 2026 and will make an announcement mid-year that details both the timeline for including foreign investors or other requirements.

The action items are to make the infrastructure adequate to support all these initiatives about foreign investment in the Indian capital markets by providing sufficient time to remediate all infrastructure for this activity; the timeframe is two years.