India’s markets regulator has notified new rules for settling cases, Mint and The Economic Times reported. Here is what they change, and what the regulator’s own record shows about who settles.
1. What is a settlement?
It closes a proceeding before the Securities and Exchange Board of India on terms the regulator accepts. Under the new rules those terms have three parts: a settlement amount, the recovery of gains where they can be measured, and remedial and regulatory terms, which the earlier rules called non-monetary terms.
2. How is the amount worked out now?
From a base tied to the minimum penalty the law sets for the violation. The base is then adjusted for the stage the proceedings have reached, regulatory action already taken, the gravity of the violation, aggravating and mitigating circumstances and legal costs, Mint reported.
3. What happens to money made from the violation?
It is kept out of that base. Wrongful gains, losses avoided and losses caused to investors are recovered separately where they can be quantified. Under the earlier approach they could be counted in the terms as well, which the new rules treat as double counting, The Economic Times reported.
4. What is the fast track?
There are two. Where the settlement amount is ₹10 lakh or less, a case goes from the internal committee directly to a panel of SEBI’s whole-time members. And for specified kinds of violation SEBI itself sends a notice naming the amount; once it is paid, a panel of members passes the order. The ₹10 lakh line applies to the settlement amount and is not an exemption, Mint reported.
5. Can misstated accounts or diverted funds be settled?
Yes, with remedial terms such as making the disclosures and bringing the funds back, Mint reported.
6. Who actually settles?
Fewer than a year ago. SEBI passed 71 settlement orders in the year to September 2026, by Kiwaro’s count of its orders pages, against 90 the year before. Eight of the 71 were summary settlement orders. September was the busiest month, with 14.
| Year to September | Settlement orders | Orders by adjudicating officers |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 71 | 286 |
| 2025 | 90 | 310 |
| 2024 | 66 | 218 |
By the wording of SEBI’s own titles, 30 of the 71 name a fund, a scheme, a trust or its manager, and 32 name a company or a matter concerning one. The other nine name persons, brokers, advisers or platforms.
Data note: orders are counted from SEBI’s orders pages by date and kind; the sorting by title is by the words in the title, and a title names the matter, not always the party that settled. The rules are as Mint and The Economic Times describe them; the regulations are not in our store, and the reports give no deadlines in days.
7. What does Kiwaro make of it?
Kiwaro’s view is that the rules arrive while the route is being used less, and that the count is the test of them. Settlement orders fell 21% in a year; orders by adjudicating officers fell 8%. SEBI’s aim, as Mint reports it, is an amount that is easier to predict. Whether a firm that can work out its bill in advance chooses to settle will show in the same count, month by month.
Institutional perspective: the first month under the new rules ends on 31 October. Kiwaro will publish the count.
