An Inter-Corporate Deposit (ICD) is an unsecured borrowing by corporates and FIs from other corporate entities registered under the Companies Act 1956. The corporate having surplus funds would lend to another corporate in need of funds. This lending would be an uncollateralized basis and hence a higher rate of interest would be demanded by the lender. The short term credit rating of the corporate would determine the rate at which the corporate would be able to borrow funds. Further the credit spreads demanded even for the top rated corporates would be higher than similar rated banks and the rates on ICDs would higher than those in the Certificate of Deposit (CD) market. The tenor of ICD may range from 1 day to 1 year, but the most common tenor of borrowing is for 90 days.

Primary Dealers are only permitted to borrow in the ICD market. The borrowing under ICD is restricted to 50% of the Net Owned Funds and the minimum tenor of borrowing is for 7 days.