SEBI

The Securities and Exchange Board of India is India’s statutory securities regulator. SEBI’s perimeter sits over equity markets, mutual funds, brokerage activity, and securities-adjacent advisory services — distinct from RBI’s banking-and-payments perimeter. For FintechPays’ India cells, SEBI is the gating regulator for stock/ETF brokerage programs and for any investment-advisory products (including most robo-advisory programs targeting Indian retail investors).

Two SEBI rule-sets are operationally relevant to FintechPays’ affiliate coverage. First, the SEBI (Stock Brokers) Regulations and broker-categorisation framework determine whether a brokerage program can legally onboard Indian retail clients and what asset classes (equity, F&O, currency, commodity) it can serve. We cite the registration number and broker category in every Indian brokerage review and verify both against SEBI’s public intermediary database before publishing the SEBI pill.

Second — and this matters intensely for the affiliate side — SEBI’s Investment Adviser Regulations and the recent finfluencer guidelines (effective from 2024) prohibit unregistered persons from giving investment advice through any channel, including affiliate-driven creator content. A creator promoting an Indian-licensed brokerage program with anything resembling stock-pick or “buy/sell” advice triggers the rule, regardless of whether they’re SEBI-registered themselves. FintechPays’ India brokerage reviews carry the disclosure language that meets the rule, and we flag in every program-card trust band where the affiliate creator’s content risk is elevated.