SECURITIES EXCHANGE BOARD OF INDIA
CIRCULAR
SEBI/HO/CFD/DIL2/CIR/P/2018/138
November 1, 2018
To
Recognized Stock Exchanges
Depositories
Registered Stock Brokers
Registered Merchant Bankers
Registered Registrars to an Issue and Share Transfer Agents
Registered Depository Participants
Registered Bankers to an Issue
National Payments Corporation of India
Dear Sir/ Madam,
Sub: Streamlining the Process of Public Issue of Equity Shares and convertibles
1. SEBI, in its endeavor to provide an efficient mechanism for raising funds, has been continuously striving to streamline the process and methodologies associated with public issue fund raising process. Towards this end, the time duration from issue closure to listing was shortened from 12 working days to 6 working days with effect from January 01, 2016, making Application Supported by Blocked Amount (ASBA) mechanism as the sole payment mechanism in public issues.
2. As a part of the continuing efforts to further streamline the process, it has been decided, in consultation with the stake holders to introduce the use of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as a payment mechanism with Application Supported by Block Amount (ASBA) for applications in public issues by retail individual investors through intermediaries (Syndicate members, Registered Stock Brokers, Registrar and Transfer agent and Depository Participants). The proposed process would increase efficiency, eliminate the need for manual intervention at various stages, and will reduce the time duration from issue closure to listing by upto 3 working days.
3. Considering the time required for making necessary changes to the systems and to ensure complete and smooth transition to UPI payment mechanism, the proposed alternate payment mechanism and consequent reduction in timelines is proposed to be introduced in a phased manner as under:
3.1 Phase I: From January 01, 2019, the UPI mechanism for retail individual investors through intermediaries will be made effective along with the existing process and existing timeline of T+6 days. The same will continue, for a period of 3 months or floating of 5 main board public issues, whichever is later.
3.2 Phase II: Thereafter, for applications by retail individual investors through intermediaries, the existing process of physical movement of forms from intermediaries to Self-Certified Syndicate Banks (SCSBs) for blocking of funds will be discontinued and only the UPI mechanism with existing timeline of T+6 days will continue, for a period of 3 months or floating of 5 main board public issues, whichever is later.
3.3 Phase III: Subsequently, final reduced timeline will be made effective using the UPI mechanism.
4. New entities / mechanisms part of the public issue process using UPI with ASBA
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI): NPCI, a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) initiative, is an umbrella organization for all retail payments in India. It has been set up with the guidance and support of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks Association (IBA);
Unified Payments Interface (UPI): UPI is an instant payment system developed by the NPCI. It enables merging several banking features, seamless fund routing & merchant payments into one hood. UPI allows instant transfer of money between any two persons’ bank accounts using a payment address which uniquely identifies a person’s bank a/c.
Sponsor Bank: Sponsor Bank means a Banker to the Issue registered with SEBI which is appointed by the Issuer to act as a conduit between the Stock Exchanges and NPCI in order to push the mandate collect requests and / or payment instructions of the retail investors into the UPI;
