Call recording rules for institutional clients will be relaxed, and most of your advertisements will need reporting within three working days instead of prior approval.
SEBI's board approved two changes that affect you at its meeting on 24 September 2026. One relaxes the requirement to keep call recordings of communications with institutional clients. The other brings Research Analysts under a Common Advertisement Code. Both have since been notified. The call recording amendment was gazetted on 9 October 2026 and applies from 8 November 2026. The Common Advertisement Code was gazetted the same day and applies from 7 April 2027. What follows is what the board decided on the day.
SEBI will amend the SEBI (Research Analyst) Regulations 2014 to relax the requirement of maintaining call recordings of communications with clients who are institutional investors. The change applies to Research Analysts and Research Entities. It follows a consultation paper issued on May 18, 2026.
The release says the requirement will be relaxed. It does not say whether the requirement is removed entirely for institutional clients or only reduced, and it does not say anything about recordings for other clients. The amendment has since been notified. Keep recording institutional client calls until it applies on 8 November 2026.
The Common Advertisement Code replaces the entity-specific advertisement frameworks that currently sit in separate SEBI regulations, master circulars, and circulars of stock exchanges or supervisory bodies. Under it, you follow the same code as stock brokers, depository participants, investment advisers, online bond platform providers, portfolio managers and mutual funds.
The main practical change is approval. Mandatory prior approval for advertisements goes, except for advertisements with celebrity endorsements. Instead, you report each advertisement within three working days after you issue it. The release does not say who receives the report or in what form.
You may use celebrities to promote your brand or your entity, subject to prior approval and safeguards. The permission is for brand-level or entity-level promotion. The release does not list the safeguards.
You may also advertise ratings and rankings assigned by the Past Risk and Return Verification Agency. The code includes an illustrative list of routine, factual and investor-service communications that will not count as advertisements. The release does not reproduce that list. The code takes into account feedback on a consultation paper issued on June 23, 2026.
“However, post-issuance reporting will be required within three (3) working days.”
Key decisions taken in the SEBI Board Meeting dated 24th September, 2026 (PR No. 59/2026), paragraph 4.2.2
The document
Key decisions taken in the SEBI Board Meeting dated 24th September, 2026 (PR No. 59/2026) on sebi.gov.in.
This summary is prepared from the SEBI document linked above. Read the original before you act on it.