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PR No.35/2026
Ease of doing business- Comprehensive review of Master Circular for Stock
Exchanges & Clearing Corporations and the Master Circular for Commodity
Derivatives
SEBI, in furtherance of its vision of ‘optimal regulation’ has undertaken a series of
initiatives to simplify, ease and reduce cost of compliance for market participants in
the securities market. In this regard, through a consultative process, comprehensive
review of Master Circular for Stock Exchanges & Clearing Corporations and the Master
Circular for Commodity Derivatives is being undertaken, towards facilitating ease of
doing business for Exchanges and Clearing Corporations.
The focus and objective of review is directed towards simplification of content, removal
of redundancies/obsolete requirements, delegation of responsibilities, rationalization
of periodic filings, review of suggestions received from stakeholders, etc. As part of
this exercise, SEBI has issued a series of four Consultation Papers on measures for
ease of doing business for Stock Exchanges which deal with:
1. Administration of Exchanges (Consultation Completed)
2. Trading at Stock Exchanges (Consultation Completed)
3. Exchange Traded Derivatives (Consultation Completed)
4. Trading Software and Technology for Exchanges (Consultation Ongoing)
Key Proposals inter alia include:
• Single Master Circular for Exchanges (Consolidation of provisions related to
Stock Exchanges and Commodity Derivatives Exchanges)
• Separate Master Circular for Clearing Corporations
Page 1 of 2• Separate Consolidated Circular for Market Infrastructure Institutions (MIIs) on
Common Information Technology related provisions
• Reduction (approximately 50%) in number of pages of Master Circular for
Exchanges
• Discontinuing various reports submitted to SEBI (while delegating them to
Committees of MIIs/disclosure on website etc.)
• Discontinuation of Registration of Investment Managers with SEBI for providing
Direct Market Access facility
• Introducing single window registration for brokers to provide Smart Order
Routing facility
• Review of System and Network Audit Framework for MIIs
• Discontinuation of Close To Money (CTM) norms for Option in Goods
• Delineation of responsibilities in monitoring of position limits across products
• Review of Client Code modification framework
• Introduction of liberalized norms for Liquidity Enhancement Scheme
• Merger of Investor Protection Fund for equity and commodity segments
The Master Circular for Exchanges shall be issued in due course after review of the
public comments received on the consultation papers. Further, the Master Circular for
Clearing Corporations shall be issued after consultation.
SEBI seeks comments from public on the fourth consultation paper on Trading
Software and Technology for Exchanges. The comments should be submitted latest
by July 13, 2026.
Mumbai
June 22, 2026
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