Advance fee limits expanded for advisers and analysts permitting annual advance fees with client consent.
SEBI permits Investment Advisers and Research Analysts to charge advance fees up to one year if agreed by the client, while fee controls (limits, payment modes, refunds, breakage and advance-fee rules) remain applicable only to individual and HUF clients who are not accredited investors. For non-individual clients, accredited investors, and institutional proxy-advice clients, fee terms are to be governed by bilaterally negotiated contracts. The circular is effective immediately and must be communicated to registered IAs and RAs.

Algorithmic trading safeguards extended: staggered effective dates set and exchanges directed to implement systems and amend bylaws.
SEBI extended the timeline for implementation standards under the circular on safer participation of retail investors in algorithmic trading: implementation standards will come into effect from May 01, 2025 and the circular's provisions will apply from August 01, 2025. Exchanges are directed to establish systems and procedures, amend bye laws, rules and regulations, and disseminate the requirements to brokers and on their websites.

Compliance officer position clarified: must be whole time, KMP and no more than one level below top management.
Clarification that the Compliance Officer must be a whole-time employee and designated as a Key Managerial Personnel, and must be positioned no more than one organisational level below the board-interpreted as one level below the Managing Director or Whole time Director(s). Where no Managing Director or Whole time Director exists, the Compliance Officer must be no more than one level below the person heading day to day management (e.g., Chief Executive Officer or Manager).

Intraday position monitoring instituted for index derivatives; breaches flagged to members but penalties paused pending further directions.
Exchanges shall implement intraday monitoring of equity index derivative position limits with at least four randomly timed snapshots per trading day and extend end-of-day monitoring mechanisms to intraday checks. Exchanges must prepare a joint SOP to notify trading members and clients of intraday notional position breaches for risk monitoring. Intraday breaches of existing notional limits will not attract penalties or be treated as violations until further directions.

Portfolio managers must submit quarterly offsite inspection data within 15 days, including day-wise client AUM and holdings.
Clauses 5.4.3 and 5.4.4 are modified: portfolio managers must submit quarterly data in specified formats within 15 calendar days from quarter end, with day-wise data for "Client Folio AUM" and "Client Holding Master." The submission requirement is declared applicable from an earlier specified date and the circular is effective immediately.

Submission timelines for offsite inspection data extended to fifteen days after quarter end; RTAs must submit data on an ongoing basis.
The circular amends Clause 5.27.2 of the Master Circular for Mutual Funds to require Mutual Funds to submit daily data in monthly files on a quarterly basis within fifteen calendar days from the end of the quarter, while Registrars to an Issue and Share Transfer Agents must submit the said data on an ongoing basis; the provisions take effect immediately under the regulator's statutory powers to protect investors and regulate the market.

InvITs: preferential issue lock in aligned with sponsor holding rules; inter sponsor transfers allowed; follow on offer framework set.
The circular amends preferential issue lock in rules to require 15% of sponsor allotted units to be locked for three years where the project manager is the sponsor or its associate (otherwise 25% locked for three years), with remaining sponsor allotted units locked for one year; sponsors must comply with Regulation 12(3) and 12(3A). It permits inter se transfers of locked in units within a sponsor's group while preserving the original lock in period and allows transfers on change of sponsor or conversion to self sponsored manager subject to meeting minimum unitholding obligations. It also prescribes procedures and disclosure, filing, listing, fee, dematerialisation and due diligence requirements for follow on offers, including a 25% minimum public unitholding post issue.

Lock-in requirement for preferential issue clarified: core sponsor holdings remain long-locked, transfers limited to sponsor group with conditions.
Amendments align preferential-issue lock-in mechanics with the REIT Regulations by prescribing a core portion of sponsor allotments to be locked for a longer period while remaining allotments face a shorter lock-in, require ongoing compliance with minimum sponsor unitholding, permit intra-group transfer of locked-in units subject to inheriting the remaining lock-in and restrictions on onward transfer, and allow transfer to incoming sponsors or self-sponsored managers conditioned on continued compliance with minimum unitholding. Separately, a comprehensive follow-on offer framework prescribes filing, listing, dematerialization, fee payment, disclosure rules, timelines, minimum public unitholding, restrictions during the offer process, and merchant banker due diligence requirements.

ESG reporting obligations updated with BRSR Core assessment or assurance option and mandatory green credits disclosure framework.
Revisions require listed entities to adopt a BRSR Core subset for ESG reporting and permit third party assessment or assurance of core KPIs per Industry Standards Forum standards; boards must ensure provider expertise and absence of conflicts, reporting formats are updated to combine data and assessment approach and to capture assessor identity and type, and a new leadership indicator mandates disclosure of green credits by the entity and top value chain partners, while value chain ESG disclosures are deferred and made voluntary initially with optional retrospective reporting.

Cybersecurity compliance extension: SEBI extends CSCRF implementation deadline to end-June for most regulated entities, excluding specified institutions.
Extension of the Cybersecurity and Cyber Resilience Framework (CSCRF) implementation timetable by three months to 30 June 2025 for SEBI regulated entities, excluding Market Infrastructure Institutions, KYC Registration Agencies and Qualified Registrars to an Issue and Share Transfer Agents; stock exchanges and depositories must notify members and publish the circular; the extension is effective immediately and issued under SEBI's regulatory powers to protect investors.

Alignment of interest of AMC designated employees: revised mandatory investment slabs, lock in, disclosure and compliance requirements.
Amendments require Designated Employees of AMCs to mandatorily invest slab wise minimum percentages of gross annual CTC (net of income tax and statutory contributions) into schemes they oversee, with two options for ESOP inclusion; role based slab assignment and a lower slab for liquid fund specialists. Up to seventy five percent of required liquid fund investments may be placed in higher risk AMC schemes based on the prior month's risk ometer. Lock in, redemption and insider trading rules are adjusted and governance requires committee led preliminary examinations and quarterly public disclosure of aggregate mandated employee investments.

Related party transaction information standards delayed to allow stakeholder feedback and revision by the industry forum.
Applicability of the Industry Standards on minimum information for audit committee and shareholder review of related party transactions has been deferred to a revised effective date to allow stakeholder feedback; the Industry Standards Forum must consider feedback, simplify and reissue the Standards on a time-bound basis, and stock exchanges are directed to inform listed entities. The circular is issued under the regulator's statutory powers and published on its website.

Online filing requirement for Regulation 10(7) reports via SEBI Intermediary Portal becomes the sole permissible mode, replacing email.
SEBI requires that reports for acquisitions covered by specified Regulation 10 exemptions be filed through the SEBI Intermediary Portal for the exemptions in Regulation 10(1)(a)(i) and 10(1)(a)(ii), with a transitional parallel filing period followed by portal only filing; fee payment must be made via the portal and a filing is complete only upon such payment, while reports for other Regulation 10 exemptions continue to be filed by email.

Disclosure of holding of specified securities: shareholding formats amended to require NDU, encumbrance and fully diluted share disclosure.
The Master Circular's shareholding pattern formats are amended: Tables I-IV must disclose Non Disclosure Undertakings, other encumbrances and total encumbered shares (including NDUs); underlying convertible securities include ESOPs; and a new column will capture total shares on a fully diluted basis (warrants, ESOPs, convertible securities). A Table II footnote provides access to promoter/promoter group entries with nil shareholding. Stock exchanges must notify companies and amend rules as needed; depositories must update systems. Amendments take effect from the quarter ending June 30, 2025.

DigiLocker integration for investor holdings enables nominee notification and access to prevent unidentified unclaimed assets.
The circular directs AMCs (and RTAs) and Recognised Depositories to register with DigiLocker as issuers to enable investors to fetch holding statements, recent transaction statements and consolidated account statements into DigiLocker; KRAs must electronically share verified instances of investor demise and death-certificate information with DigiLocker to update user status and notify DigiLocker nominees, who may access fetched financial statements after authentication, while transmission norms for mutual fund folios and demat accounts remain unchanged.

Social Stock Exchange minimum application size for Zero Coupon Zero Principal Instruments reduced to Rs. 1,000.
The circular amends the SSE issuance condition for Zero Coupon Zero Principal Instruments by reducing the minimum application size from rupees ten thousand to rupees one thousand, replacing the earlier provision with: "(4) The minimum application size shall be rupees one thousand." The amendment is issued under the regulator's statutory powers and is effective immediately as part of the existing SSE framework.

Rights issue timelines shortened; exchanges must validate bids and enable automated validation for faster allotment.
Rights issues must be completed within 23 working days from Board approval; issues must remain open between seven and thirty days. Annexure I sets a detailed timeline from Board approval through RE credit, dispatch of letter of offer, bid validation by Stock Exchanges, Depositories and Registrars, issue closure, reconciliation, allotment, fund transfers, listing and commencement of trading. Stock Exchanges and Depositories must develop an automated investor application validation system within six months. ASBA procedures and the roles of SCSBs, Stock Exchanges and RTAs for public issues apply mutatis mutandis to rights issues. Consequential amendments to the Master Circular and filing procedures are prescribed.

AIF differential rights reporting extended to allow additional time for affected funds to comply with one time filing.
SEBI has extended the one-time reporting deadline for AIFs that filed PPMs on or after March 1, 2020 and have issued differential rights not meeting Standard Setting Forum implementation standards; affected AIFs must submit the prescribed information to SEBI by the extended date, the extension taking immediate effect under SEBI's statutory powers to protect investors and regulate the securities market.

Nomination framework for securities accounts updated with joint-holder transmission rules, opt-out flexibility, and clearer KYC safeguards.
SEBI amended and clarified the nomination framework for demat accounts and mutual fund folios, covering joint holdings, opt-out of nomination, nominee operation during physical incapacitation, transmission requirements, and updated nomination-form disclosures. It clarified that assets in joint accounts are to be transmitted to surviving joint holders by name deletion, that fresh KYC cannot be insisted upon as a precondition for such transmission unless previously sought and not furnished, and that surviving holders may update key contact and banking details. The circular also introduced the treatment of odd lots, passport number acceptance for NRI, OCI and PIO holders, phased implementation, and reporting obligations for AMFI and Depositories.

KPI disclosure standards require issuers and merchant bankers to adopt industry standards for offer document disclosures.
Requirement to disclose Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in draft offer documents and offer documents is standardized through industry-developed benchmarks. Issuer companies and merchant bankers are directed to follow these standards to meet KPI disclosure obligations under the offering regulations, and stock exchanges and industry associations must publish and circulate the standards to ensure awareness and compliance.