The Securities and Exchange Board of India has issued an updated master circular for Registrars to an Issue and Share Transfer Agents (RTAs), consolidating all applicable directions into a single reference document. The circular incorporates the provisions listed in its appendix and rescinds the earlier circulars on the subject to the extent they relate to RTAs, while preserving prior actions, obligations, penalties and proceedings under the rescinded directions. The master circular restates requirements spanning registration and approvals, investor servicing, demat and transfer processing, governance and reporting. It includes online submission expectations via the SEBI Intermediary Portal, periodic compliance and grievance reporting, record-keeping requirements including an eight-year minimum retention period, and enhanced monitoring for “Qualified RTAs” where the combined number of physical and demat folios serviced for listed companies exceeds 2 crore, alongside related resilience, data and reporting expectations. On investor-facing processes, listed companies and RTAs are required to issue securities only in dematerialised form when processing specified investor service requests, with securities credited directly to the investor’s demat account within 30 days after objections are removed. A special window for transfer and dematerialisation of physical securities sold or purchased before April 01, 2019 will be open from February 05, 2026 to February 04, 2027, including for previously rejected or unprocessed transfer requests, with mandatory demat credit to the transferee and a one-year lock-in on transferred securities, and a 70-day processing timeline for complete requests.

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