How do you become a SEBI registered research analyst?

Regulation 3 of the SEBI (Research Analysts) Regulations, 2014 says nobody may act as a research analyst, or hold themselves out as one, without a SEBI certificate. The route to that certificate runs through BSE Limited, which SEBI recognised as the Research Analyst Administration and Supervisory Body (RAASB). This page walks the route in order and links the detailed page for each step.

1. Check that research analyst is the right registration

A research analyst issues research to whoever receives it: reports, buy, sell or hold calls, price targets, model portfolios, trading calls. Advice tailored to one client's situation is investment advice, which needs the other registration. Read Investment Adviser or Research Analyst first. If you run a channel or post stock views, the Telegram page and the finance creators page apply the definition to those formats. You can hold both registrations, as this page explains.

2. Meet the qualification

Regulation 7, as substituted from 25 November 2025, asks for a graduate degree or an equivalent qualification from a recognised university or institution, or a CFA Charter, together with the relevant NISM certification. The alternative is NISM's Post Graduate Program in the Securities Market (Research Analysis). The clause names no subject, and the five years of experience the old rule asked for are gone. The full text and its history are in research analyst eligibility and qualification in 2026. The eligibility checker runs your profile against it.

3. Pass NISM Series XV

Series XV is the research analyst certificate, and XV-B is its renewal. Your client-facing staff need it as well. See which NISM certificate you need, who in a research firm needs one and when to renew.

4. Decide how you will register

• Full-time, as an individual whose only business is research. That is the regulation 2(1)(h) "independent research analyst".
• Part-time, alongside a job or business unrelated to securities, with no more than 75 clients at any point of time (regulation 13(iv)). See registering while employed and the chartered accountant case.
• As a company or LLP, with a principal officer who meets regulation 7. See who a company needs and company and LLP fees.

5. Put the documents and the deposit together

The document set is listed in research analyst documents for an individual, and the document checklist builds yours. The deposit replaced the old net worth test. It starts at ₹1 lakh for up to 150 clients and sits lien-marked in a scheduled bank: the deposit page has the slabs.

6. File Form A on the BSE portal

You file Form A section by section on BSE's membership portal (the steps). BSE reads it and posts observations, and you answer each round. The usual ones are in common BSE observations, and the observation decoder explains a comment you have received. Time depends mostly on those rounds: how long it takes.

7. Pay SEBI and receive the certificate

Once BSE clears the file it goes to SEBI (what happens next). Under the Second Schedule an individual or partnership firm pays ₹2,000 with the application and ₹3,000 on grant, then ₹1,000 every five years to keep the certificate in force. The certificate itself has no expiry date (does it expire?). What registration costs and the cost calculator add the deposit and the other costs.

8. Run the compliance year

Registration starts a yearly cycle: the compliance year, the annual compliance audit, the client level segregation certificate, record keeping and a functional website. Day to day you work inside the trading restrictions, the fee cap and, if you issue baskets, the model portfolio rules. The compliance calendar lists every date.

Filing it yourself or with us

You can file alone, and this page says who manages it without help. Our fee for an individual registration is ₹15,000. SEBI and BSE fees and the deposit are paid at actuals on top. You still sit the NISM exam, fund the deposit and sign. We draft the declarations, file the form and answer BSE until SEBI decides.