What is the Common Advertisement Code and what does it change for me?

It is notified. SEBI inserted a Common Advertisement Code as Chapter IIID of the SEBI (Intermediaries) Regulations, 2008, by the Intermediaries (Second Amendment) Regulations, 2026, published in the Gazette of India on 9 October 2026. Regulation 16G(3) lists research analysts among the entities it binds and 16G(4) names RAASB as your supervisory body for it.

It starts on 7 April 2027, the one hundred and eightieth day from publication. Because this one imposes obligations, work to the earlier of the possible dates.

What every advertisement must carry. Regulation 16I requires your name, your SEBI registration number, your logo if you have one, and the disclaimers the Board specifies from time to time. Where the format has a character limit, such as an SMS, a pop-up or a push notification, you may instead link to a page on your own website carrying those details.

One thing 16I leaves open. It does not itself list your registered address, your CIN or the standard market risk warning. It defers the disclaimers to a later specification. Until SEBI specifies them, keep showing what the Master Circular already requires, including the standard warning and the registration disclaimer.

Testimonials become prohibited outright. Regulation 16O(a) bans an advertisement containing any testimonials, with no test of whether they mislead. That is stricter than the rule you follow today, so client quotes, screenshots of client messages and video testimonials have a deadline on them.

The rest of the prohibition list in 16O. No guaranteed, risk free or indicative returns, and no promise of fixed returns. Nothing that disparages another regulated entity, compares unfairly with one, or imitates its advertisement. No misleading comparison between products or asset classes of a different nature. Nothing framed to exploit an investor’s inexperience, and no slogan out of step with the risk and return profile of what you are advertising. No SEBI or market infrastructure institution logos, images or symbols unless specifically permitted. Nothing implying past performance will repeat. Nothing indecent, vulgar or offensive. And no vague adjectives such as high yield, high rated or high returns without a basis.

Past performance is not banned outright, it waits on SEBI. Regulation 16O(i) prohibits any reference to past performance of your products or services unless it is communicated in the manner the Board specifies. Read with 16N, any rating or ranking you quote has to come from a Past Risk and Return Verification Agency, be explained in the advertisement or on a page you link to, carry a line that a rating is only one factor, and come from a study covering all the relevant market participants in the category.

No inducements. Regulation 16L(1)(g): you may not offer vouchers, coupons, monetary certificates, tokens or subscription plans, by whatever name, to induce anyone to trade, take your services, reactivate a dormant account, invest in a scheme or download an app.

Celebrity endorsement is allowed, but gated. Brand or entity level only, never a specific product or service, and the advertisement needs prior approval from RAASB. The definition has eight limbs and reaches influencers above the ASCI follower threshold and virtual influencers. Your own founder, directors and senior management appearing in your own advertisement are expressly not celebrities. The cost of a celebrity endorsement may not be passed on to clients.

Someone else’s post can still be your advertisement. The definition in 16G(1) catches anything issued directly or indirectly, by or on behalf of you. An agency, an affiliate or a partner promoting your service is yours to answer for.

If a third party advertises you without your consent, regulation 16L(2) gives you three duties: take appropriate action, including legal action, within seven days of learning of it, under intimation to RAASB; tell RAASB what you did and what came of it; and disclose the incident prominently on your own website, naming the third party and the action taken.

While your registration is suspended you may not advertise at all, directly or indirectly, alone or jointly with another regulated entity (16L(1)(h)).

Twelve things are not advertisements under 16J(1), and three matter most to you. A research report, recommendation or analysis shared with existing clients carrying no claim about your own performance. Educational or informational material, provided your branding stays minimal and incidental, it carries no promotional call to action, and, where the cost comes from funds earmarked for investor education, you report it to RAASB for post facto monitoring. And a reply to someone who asked you for information. Under 16J(2), the moment any of these promotes a service or solicits interest, it is an advertisement.

Other drafting rules. If you name a security or a scheme as an example, the disclaimer that it is quoted as an example and not a recommendation has to sit on the same page of the written advertisement, or in the same frame of the video, not at the end. Any statistic, graph or chart needs its source disclosed alongside it, with the date or period it relates to.

Prior approval has not gone away yet. The Code requires it only for celebrity advertisements. Regulation 16P leaves general reporting to be specified later, so the three working day post-issuance reporting announced at the September 2026 board meeting still needs a circular. Until then the advertisement code in your Master Circular governs, prior approval included.

What happens if you breach it. Regulation 16Q lets SEBI act under Chapter V of the Intermediaries Regulations, the SEBI Act or any other applicable regulation, and separately direct RAASB to act. This is a regulation now, not a circular, so a breach is a breach of the regulations themselves.