Fintech major PB Fintech, the parent company of Policybazaar and Paisabazaar, has received SEBI approval for its wholly owned subsidiary PB Marketing and Consulting to operate as a stock broker.

In an exchange filing, the company said that the licence is to offer stock broking services for the debt segment on the NSE.

Notably, a debt segment broker facilitates trading in fixed-income instruments like corporate bonds, government securities, and treasury bills.

PB Fintech said that the registration is valid from May 8, however, it is yet to receive the certification. The platform will compete with the likes of INDMoney, Wint Wealth and 5paisa in the space.

The move is part of the company’s efforts to diversify its business and add one more revenue stream. Earlier this year, the company received the final approval from the RBI to operate as a payment aggregator. Last year, it also announced its foray into the healthcare sector.

Earlier this week, PB Fintech reported a 54% jump in net profit to ₹261.2 Cr in Q4 FY26 from ₹169.7 in the year-ago period. Operating revenue rose 37% YoY to ₹2,061 Cr, led by robust traction in its core online insurance segment.

The company continued to derive a bulk of its revenue from its online insurance distribution business, with significant contribution from its credit offerings, with the segment recovering this quarter following pressures over the preceding ones. However, concerns have been raised recently about regulatory overhang from its dependence on insurance commissions to drive revenue, which have come under regulatory scrutiny since last year.

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) is expected to soon come out with a draft notification on insurance commission structures, and is likely to ask insurance providers to link commission payouts to the level of effort involved in policy sale. This could disproportionately affect intermediaries and web aggregators like PB Fintech given their lower distribution effort compared to traditional insurance distribution agencies. Since a bulk of the company’s revenue is currently tied to this, diversification of income streams is a natural next step.

It is pertinent to mention that new-age discount brokers like Zerodha and Groww have driven significant interest in equity trading. However, debt investments continue to be largely serviced by traditional brokerages for institutional investors, with only a handful of digital-first players in the space. Hence, debt instruments have failed to gain a significant share of retail interest, despite being more robust and less volatile investments compared to equities.

Theentry of new-age players in the space, along with favourable regulation for retail participation, has now accelerated the adoption of debt investments, enhanced investor confidence, encouraged issuer participation, and created a more predictable operating environment for similar platforms.

The nascency of the debt market for retail investors and the absence of large players makes it ripe for new-age platforms to place a bet.

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