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Securities and Exchange Board of India

SEBI Act, 1992 (statutory; existed as non-statutory body since 1988)

Leadership

Appointments as of 26 Oct 2026. Sources attached per row.

The markets regulator. Everything listed, everything pooled, everything sold as an investment: brokers, mutual funds, AIFs, IPOs, takeover codes, insider trading. SEBI writes the rules, licenses the players, investigates, and adjudicates — all three powers in one body, which is both its strength and its standing conflict-of-interest.

Statute and setup

• Set up in 1988 as a non-statutory body; given teeth by the SEBI Act, 1992 after the Harshad Mehta securities scam.
• Quasi-legislative (regulations), quasi-executive (investigation) and quasi-judicial (orders) powers in one institution.
• Board: Chairperson + Whole-Time Members + RBI Deputy Governor + ministry joint secretary + part-time members. Chair and WTMs are central-government appointments.

What it regulates

• Stock brokers, depositories, exchanges and clearing corporations
• Mutual funds, AIFs, PMS, portfolio managers, investment advisers and research analysts
• Listed companies (LODR), takeovers, insider trading, buybacks and delisting
• Foreign portfolio investors; credit rating agencies; debenture trustees; online bond platforms

Powers that matter

• Search, seizure, summons, disgorgement, settlement without admission; market-wide bans on bad actors
• T+1 settlement made India the first large market to run it (Jan 2023); optional T+0 beta since 2024
• Disclosure regimes it keeps re-tightening after every episode of promoter abuse

Leadership

(as of 12 Sep 2026 — Chairperson: Tuhin Kanta Pandey since Feb 2025, succeeding Madhabi Puri Buch; Whole-Time Member Sandip Pradhan inducted Dec 2025. Pandey told Reuters in Mar 2026 he had spent his first year in 77 meetings with foreign investors, easing entry rules.)

For the person paying

• Grievance route: SCORES 2.0 — scores.gov.in — mandatory online escalation for everything from broker payout delays to mutual fund NAV disputes; SMART ODR offers online conciliation and arbitration.
• SEBI's own studies have repeatedly found most retail F&O traders lose money — Reuters reported the pattern again in Mar 2026. The regulator knows the house odds and says so; the products are still on sale.
• Check adviser/broker registration on SEBI's site before paying anyone for "stock tips".

Watchpoints (capture and accountability)

• The previous chair's 2024-25 term ended amid unprecedented public scrutiny of the chair's personal disclosures — the appointment process itself (ACC, no public shortlist) was the structural weakness everyone pointed at.
• Consultation papers are public; who responds, and which responses get accepted, is not systematically published — the LobbyWatch gap.
• Industry-standard setters (AMFI, BASL, ANMI) are SEBI-recognised SROs — industry writing its own code again; their rosters are a future SROTrac extension.

Sources

• SEBI Act, 1992 (SEBI legal framework)
• Reuters: India watchdog presses banks, other regulators for stricter insider trading enforcement (Mar 2026)
• ETBFSI: 2025 leadership overhaul

Blog

• 2026-10-02 — Securities and Exchange Board of India — what changed, and what to watch

All 1 brief(s) for this regulator →

Layer link

SEBI-recognised SROs (AMFI, ANMI, BASL) are in SROTrac's future scope: SROTrac.