New Delhi, June 23 -- The market regulator's move to make municipal bonds more accessible is unlikely to trigger a meaningful surge in retail participation anytime soon, with market participants cautioning that low investor awareness, patchy liquidity (only select papers are liquid because not all municipalities come out with bond issuances every year every time) and the challenge of assessing municipal credit quality remain significant hurdles.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) approved a series of amendments to its municipal debt regulations last week to deepen India's nascent municipal bond market.The changes include lowering the face value of privately placed municipal bonds to as little as Rs.10,000 from the earlier ...