The India International Financial Services Centres Authority approved a new regulatory framework for capital market intermediaries in the International Financial Services Centre through the IFSCA (Capital Market Intermediaries) Regulations, 2025, which will replace the 2021 regime. It also approved the IFSCA (KYC Registration Agency) Regulations, 2025 to establish a framework for registering and regulating KYC Registration Agencies (KRAs) in the IFSC, and cleared a set of transition measures linked to the IFSCA (Fund Management) Regulations, 2025. Under the new capital market intermediaries regime, ‘Research Entity’ is introduced as a regulated intermediary category and the ‘Account Aggregator’ category is removed, while requirements for ‘Distributors’ and ‘ESG Ratings and Data Products Providers’ (ERDPP) are incorporated from existing circular-based frameworks. Credit Rating Agencies may undertake ERDPP activities only with a separate ERDPP registration. The rules set minimum qualification and experience requirements for Principal Officers and Compliance Officers across intermediary categories, and require separate Principal Officer designation for each registered activity, with a limited ability at this stage to use a common Principal Officer for certain combinations (broker dealer, clearing member and depository participant; or Credit Rating Agency and ERDPP) and a common Compliance Officer for multiple registrations. Net worth requirements are revised, including earmarking parent-level net worth for IFSC branches, counting only net worth held as “liquid assets” for broker dealers, clearing members and investment bankers, and setting minimum net worth thresholds including USD 200,000 for Credit Rating Agencies, USD 25,000 for investment advisers and USD 100,000 for investment bankers; net worth must be maintained separately and in addition to requirements under other frameworks. All intermediaries must submit an annual compliance audit to IFSCA by 30 September each year. The KRA regulations set eligibility, registration and net worth requirements, prescribe qualification and experience standards, define functions and obligations for both KRAs and IFSC regulated entities, and include a code of conduct. Uploading client KYC records to a KRA is mandatory for all IFSCA-regulated entities, although IFSCA may exempt specified classes of regulated entities. On global access, IFSCA decided to maintain the status quo pending further policy deliberations, and it also approved a one-time opportunity to extend expired private placement memorandum validity (subject to conditions) and clarified requirements for filing updated private placement memoranda following regulatory changes.

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