New Delhi, Feb. 26 -- India's traditional brokers are banking on a business they dominate to claw back the ground they ceded to digital rivals over the past decade: lending clients money for leveraged trading.

Called the margin trading facility (MTF) in market parlance, it allows investors to buy shares by paying only a part of the total value upfront, with the broker funding the rest at an interest cost.

MTF book surged 42.9% in the year through January 2026 to Rs.1.20 lakh crore even as the markets turned volatile, according to a February Care Edge report.

The top two in the category are bank-backed brokers: ICICI Securities Ltd and Kotak Securities Ltd. The initial two put together make up 31.7% of the total MTF market share as of D...