Which NISM certificate you and your team actually need
SEBI names the exact exam for the compliance officer, sets a deadline for everyone else who touches research or advice, and that deadline has already passed.
Want this checked against your own position? We handle the documentation and the filing.
The qualification standard behind Investment Adviser and Research Analyst registration changed in December 2024, and we are not publishing the revised wording of regulation 7 here. We have not read that text off the amended regulations ourselves, and secondary commentary is not something we repeat as fact. Certification is a separate question from qualification, and SEBI names the certificates directly.
The compliance officer route
An Investment Adviser's compliance officer needs NISM-Series-X-A, the Investment Adviser Level 1 certification, followed by NISM-Series-X-B for Level 2 and NISM-Series-X-C on renewal, plus NISM-Series-III-A, Securities Intermediaries Compliance (Non-Fund). A Research Analyst's compliance officer runs through a different exam entirely: NISM-Series-XV, the Research Analyst certification, NISM-Series-XV-B on renewal, and the same NISM-Series-III-A.
Everyone else who touches research
Persons associated with research services had until 23 July 2026, one year from the date of SEBI's July 2025 FAQ circular, to obtain the relevant NISM certification. That date has already passed. If someone drafting or signing off on your research reports does not hold the certificate yet, treat that as a current compliance gap rather than a future to-do.
- Purely clerical or administrative staff with no client contact and no connection to research services sit outside this requirement.
- Everyone else who interacts with clients on research, or who produces it, sits inside it.
Registered without a certificate of their own
A principal officer, a person associated with investment advice, and a partner of an Investment Adviser do not each need a separate registration in their own name. They still have to meet the qualification and certification requirements under regulation 7. Skipping registration does not mean skipping the qualification bar.
The partnership deadline that already passed
A partnership firm registered as a Research Analyst or an Investment Adviser, where no partner met the regulation 7 qualification requirement, had until 30 September 2025 to re-register as an LLP or a body corporate. If your firm is a partnership and no partner personally clears the certification bar, that deadline has already gone by.
Sources read on 11 August 2026. SEBI revises these requirements, so we re-confirm every figure against the current circular before it goes into an application.
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