SEBI approves LODR amendments to ease demat credit and physical share transfers

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on December 17 approved amendments to the Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements (LODR) Regulations, 2015, by introducing quantified process improvements and clearly defined timelines to simplify investor services and revive transfer rights for physical shareholders.

According to the release, SEBI has decided to dispense with the requirement for issuance of a Letter of Confirmation (LOC) for investor service requests such as issuance of duplicate share certificates, transmission, transposition, claims from unclaimed suspense accounts and corporate actions. At present, this multi-step process takes approximately 150 days from submission of the service request, as investors are required to submit the LOC issued by registrars or listed companies to their depository participants to obtain credit of securities. With the revised framework, securities will be credited directly into investors’ demat accounts after due diligence, reducing the overall processing timeline to about 30 days, while also eliminating risks related to loss or pilferage of physical LOCs

SEBI also approved amendments to Regulation 40 to facilitate transfer of securities held in physical form, transfers of which were discontinued with effect from April 1, 2019. Earlier, re-lodgement of transfer deeds that had been executed and lodged prior to this date but were rejected or returned due to deficiencies was permitted only up to March 31, 2021.

As a first relief measure, SEBI had opened a special re-lodgement window from July 7, 2025 to January 6, 2026. However, the regulator noted that several investors who purchased physical securities before April 1, 2019 were unable to register transfers as deeds were never lodged within prescribed timelines.