The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), through PR No. 44/2026, announced an enhanced approach for inspection of market intermediaries commencing from Financial Year 2026-27. SEBI stated that stock broker and depository participant inspections will be conducted jointly by Stock Exchanges and Depositories following deliberations with Market Infrastructure Institutions (MIIs) and the Supervisory Body for IAs/RAs. The inspection framework adopts a dynamic risk-based approach incorporating new risk parameters for identifying entities for inspection. SEBI has rationalised its inspection programme to approximately one-third of the inspections conducted in the previous financial year, considering regular inspections already undertaken by Stock Exchanges and Depositories. Annual comprehensive inspections of compliant entities, particularly Qualified Stock Brokers (QSBs), are being discontinued, while entities with high risk scores, repeated shortlisting or multiple alerts will be prioritised. Joint inspections by different SEBI departments will be undertaken for entities holding multiple intermediary registrations where feasible. Greater weightage will be given to alerts generated by Exchanges, complaints and social media, with quarterly shortlisting, and inspections may also be initiated based on market intelligence, references from Regional Offices/Local Offices, technical glitches, cyber incidents and Authorised Persons of stock brokers.
Securities and Exchange Board of India
PR No.44/2026
SEBI streamlines inspection of market intermediaries
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) streamlines Stock Broker and Depository Participant inspections by mandating joint inspection by stock Exchanges and Depositories. Based on deliberations with Market Infrastructure Institutions (MIIs) and the Supervisory Body for IAs/RAs regarding the planning and conduct of joint inspections of market intermediaries by SEBI, an enhanced approach has been adopted for the inspection of intermediaries by SEBI commencing from the Financial Year 2026-27.
The regulatory oversight of market intermediaries has been strengthened by employing a dynamic approach to encompass new risk parameters for identifying and shortlisting of entities for inspections. For robust supervision, following steps are intended to collectively enhance Ease of Doing Business of the intermediaries, as a result of the rationalisation in the frequency of inspection visits.
1. Considering the regular inspections of stock brokers, DPs, IAs and RAs done by Stock Exchanges and Depositories, the targeted number of inspections to be carried out by SEBI in the Financial Year 2026-27 has been rationalised to approximately one-third of the inspections conducted in the preceding Financial Year.
2. Repetitive annual comprehensive inspections of compliant entities by SEBI, especially QSBs are being discontinued. However, entities that repeatedly feature across shortlisting parameters over time, carry high ‘risk scores’, or trigger multiple alerts processed by Exchanges are being prioritised.
3. Inspection of entities with multiple intermediary registrations are being conducted jointly by different departments of SEBI (wherever feasible), with an objective to reduce the number of inspection visits across the Financial Year.
4. Greater emphasis has been laid upon alerts generated by the Exchanges, complaints and social media to assign a higher weightage to recent instances of possible violations. Accordingly, shortlisting is being done on a quarterly basis.
5. Further, inspections are being undertaken based on market intelligence/references including inputs received from ROs/LOs, covering themes including but not limited to technical glitches, cyber incidents and Authorised Persons of stock brokers based on references received.
Mumbai
August 07, 2026
