The Authority may appoint an auditor to inspect or investigate a recognised market infrastructure institution's books of account, records, documents, infrastructure, systems, procedures, or affairs.

Directions by the Authority may be issued without limiting powers under the IFSCA Act or related rules and regulations. Directions may be initiated on the Authority's own motion, upon receipt of information, or during or after an inspection, inquiry, or investigation, where appropriate to protect public, trade, investor, or securities market interests in an IFSC.

Inspection powers permit the Authority to inspect, inquire into, and audit a market infrastructure institution, its associates, and its shareholders at any time. Relevant managers, directors, officers and employees must cooperate during an inspection. Following consideration of an inspection or investigation report, the Authority may take such action as it considers fit and appropriate.

The Authority may, at any time, require information, documents or records from a recognised market infrastructure institution, its governing board, or any shareholder. This power enables regulatory access to material held by the institution and persons connected with its governance or ownership.

Returns and reporting obligations require every recognised market infrastructure institution to furnish returns, statements and particulars to the Authority in the manner specified by it. Each institution must also submit its annual financial statements and returns to the Authority by 30 September each year. Recognised stock exchanges and recognised clearing corporations must additionally include information required under rules 17 and 17A in their reports.

Recognised market infrastructure institutions must appoint a compliance officer to monitor compliance with applicable laws, including securities laws, the IFSCA Act, and rules and regulations made under it. The compliance officer is responsible for redressal of investors' grievances and must immediately and independently report any observed noncompliance to the Authority.

Market infrastructure institutions must, in addition to obligations under other applicable laws, maintain and preserve all books, registers, documents and records relating to the issue or transfer of their securities. Records must be kept in electronically retrievable form for a minimum period of twenty years.

Recognised market infrastructure institutions must maintain a website or another universally accessible electronic information repository. It must publish required regulatory information, all rules, regulations, bye-laws, guidance and amendments, membership or association application procedures, and material information concerning institutional functions.

Recognised depositories must ensure equal, unrestricted, transparent and fair access for all persons, without bias in favour of their associates or related entities.

Every recognised depository must incorporate in its bye-laws a procedure governing the creation of a pledge by beneficial owners over securities owned by them. The operational mechanism for pledging such securities must therefore be addressed through the depository's prescribed internal procedures.

Recognised depositories must extend necessary co-operation to beneficial owners, issuers and their agents, securities custodians, other depositories, and clearing corporations. This obligation is directed at ensuring effective, prompt, and accurate clearance and settlement of securities transactions and the conduct of business.

Recognised depositories must maintain records of dematerialised and rematerialised securities, securities transfers, beneficial owners and daily beneficial holdings. They must also preserve participant details, instructions involving participants, issuers and beneficial owners, pledge or hypothecation entries, and securities eligible for dematerialisation. The location of records must be intimated to the Authority, and all prescribed records and documents must be retained in electronic retrieval form for at least twenty years.

Recognised depositories must maintain a Business Continuity Plan and a Disaster Recovery Site to safeguard data and transaction integrity. These operational resilience arrangements must be established and maintained in the manner specified by the Authority from time to time.

Recognised depositories must maintain a sound risk management system and infrastructure capable of comprehensively managing risks. Risk-management arrangements must support operational resilience and address risks arising from recognised market-infrastructure functions.

A recognised depository must permit a participant to withdraw or transfer its account where the request complies with conditions contained in the depository's bye-laws. The participant's entitlement is subject to the procedural and substantive requirements of that bye-law framework.

Protection of beneficial owners requires every recognised depository to adopt adequate protective measures against risks arising from its activities as a recognised depository. Such measures must include insurance to safeguard beneficial owners' interests against activity-related risks.

Investor protection mechanism is mandatory for every recognised depository and must adequately safeguard persons buying and selling securities held in the depository.

Recognised depositories must maintain continuous electronic communication with participants, issuers or issuers' agents, clearing houses, clearing corporations of stock exchanges, and other depositories. The connectivity requirement supports uninterrupted coordination across the depository and market-infrastructure ecosystem.

A recognised depository must arrange an annual inspection of its controls, systems, procedures and safeguards. It must forward a copy of the resulting inspection report to the Authority under Regulation 50 of the International Financial Services Centres Authority (Market Infrastructure Institutions) Regulations, 2021.

Recognised depositories must maintain the integrity of automatic data-processing systems and protect records against loss, destruction or tampering. Sufficient backup records must be available at a different location at all times to ensure preservation and recoverability where records are lost or destroyed.