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Securities Intermediaries Compliance (Fund) by NISM sets out the minimum common knowledge benchmark for persons discharging the compliance function at SEBI-registered fund-based intermediaries—Mutual Funds, Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs), and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs).

The workbook is designed to serve two purposes. It is the prescribed preparatory text for the NISM-Series-III-C examination, and it stands on its own as a working compendium of the statutes, regulations, codes of conduct, and SEBI frameworks that a Compliance Officer in a fund-based intermediary consults in practice. Its distinctive approach is the lens it applies throughout: every statute and regulation is read from the standpoint of the Compliance Officer's obligations, independence, and reporting duties, rather than as abstract law. It thereby traces the full regulatory perimeter—from the architecture of the Indian financial system and the foundational securities legislation down to the four product-specific regimes—within a single, examination-aligned reference.

This book is intended for the following audience:

  • Candidates Registering for the NISM-Series-III-C: Securities Intermediaries Compliance (Fund) Certification Examination

  • Compliance Officers and Compliance-Function Staff at Mutual Funds, AIFs, InvITs, and REITs registered with SEBI

  • Associated Persons Required to Obtain this Certification under the SEBI (Certification of Associated Persons in the Securities Markets) Regulations, 2007

  • Asset-Management, Trustee, Sponsor, and Investment-Manager Personnel responsible for ongoing regulatory adherence

  • Legal, Company-Secretarial, Audit, and Risk Professionals supporting fund-based intermediaries

  • Students and Job Aspirants establishing a career path in securities-market compliance

The Present Publication is the January 2026 Workbook Version, developed in collaboration with the NISM Certification Team and Vatsalya Advisory Services LLP (Designated Partner, Mr. B. Renganathan). It is published exclusively by Taxmann, with the following noteworthy features:

  • [Weightage-Aligned Sequencing] Content sequenced to mirror the official chapter-wise examination weightages, so study effort can be allocated against the marks each topic carries

  • [Defined Learning Objectives] Every chapter opens with explicit Learning Objectives that state the competencies to be acquired before progressing

  • [Chapter-End Review Questions] Each of the seventeen chapters closes with a set of multiple-choice Review Questions, enabling self-assessment in the format and difficulty of the actual examination

  • [Two-Part Modular Architecture] A clean separation of the generic regulatory foundation from the four fund-based intermediary-specific regulations, allowing independent revision of either block

  • [Updated to 2026] Statutory and regulatory positions stated as of the January 2026 version, incorporating current SEBI master circulars and frameworks

  • [Compliance-Officer Orientation] Carried throughout—appointment, independence, reporting lines to the Board and to SEBI, codes of conduct, and the penal consequences of default are treated as live functional requirements

  • [Dual-Purpose Reference] Self-contained and equally usable for examination preparation and day-to-day compliance work

The coverage of the book is as follows:

  • Part A — Regulatory Foundation

    • The Indian Financial System – Money, capital, forex, credit and insurance markets; Market Infrastructure Institutions including depositories, stock exchanges, clearing corporations and the Social Stock Exchange; and the full spectrum of registered intermediaries

    • Regulatory & Supervisory Architecture – The respective roles of SEBI, RBI, IRDAI and PFRDA, the appellate mechanism, and the legislative framework governing the financial market, including the IFSC

    • The Compliance Function – The appointment, independence, and dual reporting responsibility of the Compliance Officer, and the certification mandate delegated to NISM

    • Foundational Securities Statutes – The SEBI Act, the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act and Rules, and the Depositories Act—alongside the contract and agency-law principles underpinning the broker-investor relationship

    • Conduct & Market-Integrity Regulations – Obligations of intermediaries, prohibition of insider trading with its codes of conduct, and the prohibition of fraudulent and unfair trade practices

    • Anti-Money-Laundering Regime – The offence and machinery under the PMLA, the SEBI AML/CFT guidelines, and the enforcement ecosystem spanning the Economic Offences Wing, the Financial Intelligence Unit, and FATF standards

    • KYC Registration Agency Framework – The KRA regime and in-person verification guidelines

    • Cross-Border Investment Regulation – Foreign Portfolio Investor categories, eligibility and conduct, offshore derivative instruments, and the FEMA framework covering FDI, the Portfolio Investment Scheme, and debt and non-debt instrument rules

  • Part B — Fund-Based Intermediary-Specific Regulations

    • Mutual Funds – Legal trust structure, stakeholder roles of sponsor, trustee, AMC, custodian and registrar, scheme and portfolio disclosures, the risk-management framework, investor rights, and AMC conduct restrictions

    • Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) – The privately-pooled vehicle, the sophisticated-investor threshold, the three-category classification, investment strategy, transparency obligations, and special types of funds

    • InvITs & REITs – Their trust structures and key parties, fund-raising, listing, delisting, borrowings and debt issuance, asset valuation, investment conditions, continual disclosures, and SEBI inspection

  • Cross-Cutting

    • Emerging Compliance Areas – Frameworks for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, and for online dispute resolution, cyber security and resilience

The book is organised into two parts spanning seventeen chapters, each following a uniform internal architecture.

  • Part A — Understanding the Financial Structure in India (the first thirteen chapters) constructs the generic regulatory foundation. It progresses from the financial system and the regulatory framework, through the compliance function, into the core securities statutes, then the conduct regulations, and finally the cross-cutting regimes governing money laundering, KYC, foreign portfolio investment, and foreign exchange.

  • Part B — Fund-Based Intermediary-Specific Regulations (the final four chapters) addresses the four product regulations in turn: Mutual Funds, Alternative Investment Funds, Infrastructure Investment Trusts, and Real Estate Investment Trusts.

  • Within each chapter, the architecture is consistent:

    • A statement of Learning Objectives at the outset

    • Sequentially Numbered Sections developing the regulatory provisions

    • Treatment of definitions, eligibility and registration, obligations and codes of conduct, and inspection, default and penal consequences—and, in the Part B chapters, of fund-raising, listing and delisting, valuation, investment conditions and disclosure

    • A closing set of multiple-choice Review Questions for self-assessment