Minimum Liquid Net-worth alignment for commodity clearing members removes base capital requirement and mandates collateral replacement.
SEBI requires clearing members in the commodity derivatives segment to maintain a minimum Liquid Net-worth aligned with equity and currency derivatives and removes the Base Minimum Capital requirement; Liquid Net-worth equals liquid assets after deduction of applicable margins. Commodity exchanges and their members must, within three months, replace member-deposited FDRs with eligible collateral and implement SEBI's margin provisions for intra-day crystallised losses, and must notify members and publish these provisions.

Due diligence under FATCA/CRS requires RFIs to obtain valid self certifications and report identified reportable accounts annually.
RFIs and DDPs/Custodians must collect, validate and retain FATCA/CRS self certifications and documentary evidence at account opening, develop systems to capture and audit FATCA/CRS information, furnish identified reportable accounts in the prescribed return, and certify annual compliance to SEBI as part of the internal controls audit report.

Spread margin benefit in commodity futures limited by correlation, backtesting and mandatory expiry stage withdrawal requirements.
Exchanges may grant initial margin benefit on spread positions only if the coefficient of correlation between futures prices is at least 0.90, back testing over a minimum of 250 trading days shows post benefit initial margin covers mark to market on at least 99% of days, and each contract in the spread is among the first three expiring contracts; maximum initial margin benefit is capped at 50% and no ELM benefit is permitted (ELM charged on both legs), with mandatory monitoring and withdrawal by tender period or expiry day.

Position limit rules for INR currency derivatives restrict unbacked positions and require underlying exposure for excess holdings.
Revision establishes an aggregated position limit for INR based currency derivatives allowing domestic clients and FPIs to take positions up to a single threshold across all FCY INR pairs and exchanges without proving underlying exposure; FPIs' short positions are capped at that threshold and breaches will result in exchanges restricting further shorting until compliance. Positions above the threshold require FPIs to hold underlying exposure in Indian debt or equity securities, and clients/FPI compliance is enforceable under foreign exchange law with monitoring and reporting by exchanges and clearing corporations.

Investor Protection Fund interest use clarified: carry forward, capped research funding, and temporary ISF substitution permitted.
Permits carry forward of unutilized Investor Protection Fund (IPF) interest to the next financial year; allows use of IPF interest for commodity-market research with prior written trustee approval, quarterly or half-yearly Board reporting and a cap of ten percent of IPF interest; enables use of IPF for clients of non SEBI registered members if bye laws permit; and authorises use of IPF interest for Investor Service Fund (ISF) expenditures for three years from April 1, 2018, subject to bye law amendments, member notice, website dissemination and reporting to SEBI.

Investor grievance redressal: mandatory annual arbitrator training and non refundable late filing fee to expedite complaints.
Exchanges must provide at least one day of annual training to each arbitrator and impose a non-refundable additional fee on members who file claims after prescribed time lines, even if the arbitration award favors the member; exchanges must amend bye laws, notify members, publish the clarifications on their websites and report implementation, with the measures effective immediately.

Category II FPI investment: clarified eligibility, portfolio commonality, broad based investor requirements, and prohibition on segregated insurer portfolios.
Collective investment vehicles of private/merchant banks must comply with KYC and beneficial owner identification, exclude Resident Indian/NRI/OCI beneficial owners, avoid jurisdictions identified by FATF for deficiencies, prohibit opaque or bearer share structures, and maintain a broad based common portfolio (except for ODIs) with no investor exceeding forty nine percent; insurance/reinsurance companies must maintain undivided common portfolios and segregated structures are prohibited; other regulated Category II persons may invest proprietary funds and may invest client funds as ODI issuing FPIs or after meeting broad based and common portfolio conditions, with all FPI restrictions and due diligence requirements continuing to apply.

Separate limit for Interest Rate Futures: dedicated FPI long-position allocation with exchange monitoring and breach rectification.
The circular allocates a separate long-position limit for FPIs in Interest Rate Futures, modifies prior SEBI circular provisions accordingly, and prescribes that only net long positions of FPIs in each IRF instrument be aggregated for the cap while excluding net shorts. It further imposes an individual FPI long-position cap, requires stock exchanges to monitor and publish aggregate FPI net long positions daily, trigger alerts as utilisation nears the allocation, and mandates that FPIs causing any breach must square off excess positions within a short prescribed timeframe or by contract expiry. Existing Government securities limits remain exclusively for Government securities.

Minimum public shareholding: open market sales and qualified institutions placement now permitted to aid compliance.
The Circular permits additional methods to meet minimum public shareholding requirements by authorising open market sale by promoters of up to two percent of paid-up equity subject to trading volume limits, required pre-sale disclosure to stock exchanges, promoter undertakings not to repurchase on sale dates, and compliance with insider trading and takeover rules; and by authorising allotment through Qualified Institutions Placement under existing ICDR rules.

Daily Contract Settlement Value calculation for interest rate futures clarified; VWAP-based pricing with layered theoretical-price fallbacks and disclosure requirement.
SEBI requires the Daily Contract Settlement Value for interest rate futures to be computed from the volume weighted average futures price of the last half hour multiplied by a fixed multiplier; absent last half hour trading, a theoretical futures price is used based on NDS OM two hour VWAP of the underlying bond, with fallback options of a FIMMDA referenced theoretical price or the day's VWAP, previous day's theoretical price usable up to five trading days, and mandatory disclosure of the theoretical price model by exchanges.

Eligible collateral rules allow IFSC clearing corporations to accept bank guarantees and foreign securities with minimum cash composition required.
Clearing corporations in the International Financial Services Centre may accept as eligible collateral cash and cash equivalents (including specified foreign currencies, term deposit receipts and bank guarantees issued by IFSC bank branches), Indian securities held with foreign depositories, foreign securities including units of liquid mutual funds, and gold for trades in all product categories, provided cash and cash equivalents form at least half of total liquid assets. Clearing corporations must amend systems and bye laws, notify members and publish the change, and report implementation status monthly to the regulator.

Compensation for failed IPO allotments due to bank errors: formula, claim window, and redress timeline for retail investors.
Compensation is required where RIIs are denied IPO allotment due to SCSB failures, calculated by (highest opening listing price minus issue price) x shares that would have been allotted x allotment probability; registrars must share allotment basis files with SCSBs. RIIs may file claims within three months of listing; SCSBs must resolve claims within fifteen days or pay interest at 15% per annum for delays beyond that period. No compensation if listing price is below issue price; issues subscribed between ninety and one hundred percent merit compensation for all attributable shares. The policy is effective immediately.

Custodian change and due diligence relief for FPIs enables streamlined custodian transfers and reduced re-documentation burdens.
SEBI eases FPI access norms by allowing Global Custodians to request local custodian/DDP changes on behalf of authorised FPIs, eliminating prior SEBI approval where transferee custodian/DDP records no objection and notifies SEBI, and permitting transferee DDPs to rely on prior due diligence while requiring adequate due diligence at the next continuance. The circular dispenses with resubmission of PCC/MCV Declarations and investor-group information at continuance if unchanged, allows free-of-cost transfers and multiple custodians for FPIs under the MIM structure with the same PAN, clarifies share-class approval requirements for common versus segregated portfolios, permits regulated private/merchant banks to act for clients subject to beneficial-owner disclosure assurances, and extends conditional registration to converting India-dedicated funds.

Independent trustee tenure extended under phased compliance, permitting temporary continuation and limited audit continuity for transition.
Independent trustees and independent directors who had served nine years or more as of the prior cutoff may be retained through a phased two-year transition; auditors who have audited a mutual fund for nine years or more may continue until the end of the specified financial year. All other provisions of the earlier circular remain unchanged. The relaxations are issued under Section 11(1) of the SEBI Act and Regulation 77 of the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations to protect investors and regulate the securities market.

Total Expense Ratio disclosure: AMCs must publish daily TER and notify investors three working days before base TER increases.
AMCs must publish daily TER of all schemes in a downloadable spreadsheet and update the website at least three working days before any increase in the base TER; investors must be notified by email or SMS at least three working days prior, while decreases due to increased daily net assets need no prior notice but must be communicated immediately. Changes must be recorded with written rationale, intimated to the AMC Board, and placed before trustees quarterly. The circular also requires AMCs to provide the exact weblink to the TER disclosure and applies to new schemes immediately and existing schemes from the stated effective date.

Additional TER for beyond-top cities revised to permit extra expense charging on a wider set of city inflows.
The circular expands the geographic cohort eligible for an additional TER of up to thirty basis points by substituting references to top-15/beyond-top-15 cities with top-30/beyond-top-30 across the cited SEBI circulars, while retaining existing eligibility tests based on the higher of a specified share of gross new inflows or a proportion of average assets under management; the amendment is effective from the stated applicability date and preserves other provisions unchanged.

Additional expense charge prohibited for mutual fund schemes without exit load; AMCs must discontinue such levies immediately.
Where a mutual fund scheme, including close-ended schemes, does not levy an exit load or exit load is not applicable, the AMC is not eligible to charge the additional expenses permitted under Regulation 52 (6A)(c); schemes currently levying such charges must discontinue them immediately.

Online registration requirement for stock exchanges: registrations, renewals and statutory filings must be submitted via the SEBI intermediary portal for compliance.
A mandatory online registration mechanism requires applicants for recognition or renewal as a Stock Exchange under Regulations 4 and 12 to submit applications and upload prescribed documents via the SEBI Intermediary Portal, while retaining hard copies for SEBI. All statutory filings, including Annual Financial Statements, Returns, Monthly Development Reports, Rules and Bye-laws, must also be filed electronically through the portal; the system is operational and immediate compliance by recognised Stock Exchanges is directed.

Online registration requirement: Depositories must submit recognition applications and regulatory filings through the SEBI Intermediary Portal for compliance.
SEBI has mandated that applications for recognition as a Depository and all related filings, including annual financial statements, returns, monthly development reports and rules or bye laws changes, be submitted online through the SEBI Intermediary Portal with uploaded scanned copies of prescribed declarations and supporting documents, while maintaining hard copies for production; the portal is operational and depositories must comply immediately.

Independent oversight committee for product design mandates supervision of new and modified commodity contracts and reporting to exchange management.
Mandates an Independent Oversight Committee for Product Design to oversee new and modified commodity products and the ongoing review of approved contracts; to examine SEBI inspection observations on product design; and to assess adequacy of resources devoted to product design. Heads of departments handling these matters must report to the committee and the Managing Director, and may appeal exchange action to the committee within a period set by the governing board. Exchanges must amend bye-laws, inform members and publish the provisions, effective within thirty days.