SEBI Proposes Common Advertisement Code for Market Intermediaries; Seeks Comments on Proposed Changes

Mumbai, June 24: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has proposed a Common Advertisement Code to replace the patchwork of entity-specific advertising rules currently applicable to stock brokers, depository participants, investment advisers, research analysts, online bond platform providers, portfolio managers, and mutual funds and asset management companies.

The proposed unified code, to be embedded in the SEBI (Intermediaries) Regulations, 2008, is designed to simplify compliance, eliminate regulatory complexity, and create a single harmonised advertising framework across all regulated entities under the market regulator’s supervision, SEBI said on Tuesday releasing a consultation paper seeking comments on the proposed changes.

The most immediate practical change proposed under the Common Advertisement Code is the scrapping of mandatory prior approval for advertisements. Under the current framework, regulated entities must obtain regulatory clearance before releasing an advertisement, a process that market participants have long flagged as burdensome and slow. SEBI’s proposal replaces this with a post-issuance reporting requirement within 24 hours of release, a shift that the regulator says will meaningfully ease the cost of doing business without compromising investor protection oversight.

In a notable departure from existing norms, the proposed framework also permits regulated entities to engage celebrities for brand-level and entity-level promotion, subject to prescribed conditions and prior approval for such celebrity-specific engagements. The move acknowledges the growing importance of influencer and celebrity-driven marketing in financial services, while setting guardrails to prevent misleading or unverified product-level claims being attached to a celebrity’s public profile. The code draws a careful distinction between brand promotion, where celebrity involvement is now proposed to be allowed, and product-specific or returns-specific advertising, where stricter rules continue to apply.

The framework also proposes to permit regulated entities to advertise ratings and rankings assigned by the Past Risk and Return Verification Agency, known as PaRRVA, subject to prescribed conditions. The regulator said the measure is intended to allow legitimate distinctions in performance to be communicated to investors while ensuring adequate safeguards against misleading comparisons. To reduce ambiguity in what constitutes an advertisement, the definition is proposed to be revised to clearly separate promotional communications from routine, factual, and investor-service communications, with an illustrative list of the latter to be included in the code itself.

On the technology and reporting front, SEBI has proposed the development of a common digital reporting portal to be set up by supervisory bodies, through which regulated entities will file advertisement disclosures. For entities with multiple supervisory bodies, a single unified platform is envisaged, reducing duplication and improving regulatory oversight through a centralised data trail. The regulator said the unified reporting mechanism is expected to bring operational efficiency to both the industry and the supervisory process.

The consultation paper has been uploaded on the SEBI website and the regulator has invited public comments by July 14, 2026. The proposals, issued as PR No. 36/2026, mark the latest in a series of ease-of-doing-business initiatives SEBI has undertaken in 2026, following similar reform consultations covering stock exchanges, clearing corporations, and commodity derivatives frameworks earlier this year.

Source:

• SEBI Press Release PR No. 36/2026, dated June 22, 2026 | sebi.gov.in