Look at credit rating carefully before investing in NCDs

While interest rate is 100-200 basis points higher than bank FDs, quality of issuer is important

Retail investors looking to earn higher interest rates could be attracted by the Non-Convertible Debenture (NCD) issues of Non-Banking Finance Companies. 

Srei Equipment Finance's Rs 500 crore secured NCD issue is open and will close on January 20. The other two in the pipeline are Muthoot Finance, which is looking to raise Rs 1,300 crore through secured NCDs and Rs 100 crore through unsecured NCDs and ECL Finance which is looking to raise Rs 2,000 crore through secured NCDs. Both Muthoot and ECL will raise the funds in more than one tranche.

Srei Equipment is offering a coupon of up to 9.75