The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Thursday mandated a unified annual inspection for stock brokers and depository participants to be conducted jointly by all relevant market infrastructure institutions (MIIs), replacing the existing practice of separate assessments by each entity.
The regulator aims to reduce repeated visits and save time and resources for market intermediaries. Currently, annual inspections of stock brokers and depository participants (DPs) are conducted separately by each of the MIIs, including the stock exchanges, depositories, and clearing corporations.
The existing practice placed an undue burden on intermediaries due to repeated inspection visits by different MIIs, which led to excessive diversion of resources and disruptions in the routine operations of these entities, SEBI said.
“Entities selected for annual inspections shall be inspected for all segments jointly by all stock exchanges, along with their depository participant (DP) operations, if the broker is also registered as a DP, and clearing activity, if the broker undertakes clearing for other brokers,” SEBI said in a circular.
If a broker is also a DP or undertakes clearing activities, all these operations will be inspected jointly.
Published on August 7, 2025
