Accreditation of Certifications for Investment Advisors
Functions of NISM
National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) performs two functions delegated to it under the SEBI (Certification of Associated Persons in the Securities Markets) Regulations, 2007. These are:
1.Offering mandatory certification examinations for securities market intermediaries
2. Offering Continuing Professional Education (CPE) programs for market intermediaries who are holding certificates.
SEBI (Investment Advisers) Regulations, 2013
SEBI has notified the SEBI (Investment Advisers) Regulations, 2013 on January 21, 2013. As per the Regulation, an individual investment adviser or principal officer of a non-individual investment adviser, registered under these regulations and persons associated with investment advice shall have a certification from NISM or from any other organization or institution provided that such certification is accredited by NISM.
Qualification and Certification Requirement
“7 (1) An individual investment adviser or a principal officer of a non-individual investment adviser registered as an investment adviser under these regulations, shall have the following minimum qualification, at all times-
a) A professional qualification or post-graduate degree or post graduate diploma (minimum two years in duration) in finance, accountancy, business management, commerce, economics, capital market, banking, insurance or actuarial science from a university or an institution recognized by the Central Government or any State Government or a recognised foreign university or institution or association or a CFA Charter from the CFA Institute;
b) An experience of at least five years in activities relating to advice in financial products or securities or fund or asset or portfolio management;
c) Persons associated with investment advice shall meet the following minimum qualifications, at all times – (i) a professional qualification as provided in clause (a) of subregulation (1) of regulation 7; and (ii) an experience of at least two years in activities relating to advice in financial products or securities or fund or asset or portfolio management:
Provided that investment advisers registered under these regulations as on the date of commencement of these regulations shall ensure that the individual investment adviser or principal officer of a non-individual investment adviser registered under these regulations and persons associated with investment advice comply with such qualification and experience requirements within three years:
Provided further that the requirements at clauses (a) and (b) shall not apply to such existing individual investment advisers as may be specified by the Board.
(2) An individual investment adviser or principal officer of a non-individual investment adviser, registered under these regulations and persons associated with investment advice shall have, at all times a certification on financial planning or fund or asset or portfolio management or investment advisory services –
(a) from NISM; or
(b) from any other organization or institution including Financial Planning Standards Board of India or any recognized stock exchange in India provided such certification is accredited by NISM:
Provided that fresh certification must be obtained before expiry of the validity of the existing certification to ensure continuity in compliance with certification requirements
Provided further that fresh certification before expiry of the validity of the existing certification shall not be obtained through a CPE program.”
Accreditation of Certifications
NISM shall accredit certification examinations as per established criteria and standards.
NISM will accredit specific certification examination(s) for which application is submitted. It should be noted that NISM will not accredit the applicant’s organization.
Examination Objectives, Training content and course-ware etc for each applied certification examination will be evaluated against examination content criteria as may be specified by NISM from time to time. Generally, the content of the certification examinations must at least cover all the topics which have been covered in NISM-Series-X-A: Investment Adviser (Level 1) Certification Examination and NISM-Series-X-B: Investment Adviser (Level 2) Certification Examination. Click here to download the Test Objectives.
The detailed criteria for accreditation of certification examinations have been provided in Annexure I.
Accreditation shall be granted for a maximum period of one year initially.
Thereafter, Accreditation may be further renewed for a period of 2 years, subject to fulfillment of NISM requirements.
NISM will monitor the quality of accredited certification examinations and will have the discretion to terminate the accreditation, if required. Termination may be attributed to poor quality of content, lack of periodic updates or repeated complaints from candidates or any other reasons, as may be decided by NISM from time to time.
Further, the number of accredited certification examinations may also depend on demand for such certifications from the market participants, with a focus on NISM’s objective of creating a uniform standard minimum knowledge benchmark across the industry.
Accreditation Criteria
In order to evaluate the application for accreditation of the particular certification examination, the certification examination should meet the following conditions
1. The certification examination should have been available to the candidates for a period of atleast 3 years prior to submission of application for accreditation.
2. The certification examination should have a validity less than or equivalent to NISM- Series X-A: Investment Adviser (Level 1) certification examination and NISM-Series X-B: Investment Adviser (Level 2) certification examination.
3. A candidate can obtain a fresh certification before the expiry of validity of her / his existing certification only by passing the same accredited examination once again.
Further a candidate cannot obtain a fresh certification before/after the expiry of validity of his/her existing certification by way of attending Continuous Professional Education programs, or accumulating professional development points/credits, or passing another revalidation examination, or pursuing other courses/certifications.”
[For continuing to remain certified, a candidate will have also an option of passing NISM’s Investment Adviser examinations or any other NISM accredited certification examination for Investment Adviser, before expiry of validity of his/her existing certification]
Click here to download the application form.
Click here to download Terms & Conditions
The Accreditation Committee shall consider the following criteria for accrediting certification examinations:
| Section | Criteria | Weights |
|---|---|---|
| A | Background of the Organization | 50% |
| B | Policies and Processes followed for the Certification Examination | 50% |
Application for accreditation of certification examination should score at least 80% marks in each of the section to be eligible for accreditation.
For detailed criteria, please refer Annexure I.
Accreditation Process
Steps in the accreditation process:
- Step 1: Interested organizations submit the application form along with a non-refundable application fee for a specific certification examination with all supporting documents;
- Step 2: NISM evaluates the application and may seek additional information if needed;
- Step 3: NISM evaluation presented to the Accreditation Committee;
- Step 4: Accreditation Committee may meet and interact with representatives of shortlisted applicants, if required;
- Step 5: Accreditation Committee makes recommendations to NISM after scrutiny based on which NISM takes the final decision.
- Step 6: NISM communicates the decision to the applicant;
- Step 7: In case ‘conditional’ accreditation is granted, NISM may suggest changes to the course curriculum, administrative capacity, etc, where required prior to accreditation. The applicant must incorporate the required changes, inform and obtain approval from NISM prior to accreditation.
Fees
a) On the basis of the likely expenditure associated with the process of accreditation, the applicant organization has to submit a non-refundable application fee of Rs. 1,00,000/- plus applicable taxes per application.
b) Subsequently, on the grant of accreditation, the applicant organization should pay Accreditation Fees of Rs. 1,00,000/- plus applicable taxes per certification accreditation, within 7 calendar days of communication of accreditation application status.
c) Accreditation shall be granted for an initial period of 1 year and thereafter it may be further renewed for a period of 2 years subject to fulfilment of NISM requirements. Renewal Fees for accreditation shall be Rs. 2,00,000/- plus applicable taxes per accreditation.
d) For maintaining the database of certified professionals on NISM’s Skills Registry, a fee of Rs. 500/- per candidate per certificate shall be charged by NISM. This is subject to periodic revision by NISM. The certifying institution shall provide this fee in bulk, along with the data of the certified candidates as required by NISM.
Maintenance of Database for Certified Individuals
Upon completion of the process of accreditation of a certification examination, NISM shall seek details of candidates who have passed the accredited certification examination from the certifying institution. Such details may be provided on a continuing basis at a periodicity that shall be decided by NISM in NISM prescribed formats. The information will include details of the candidates and validity of the certificates.
The details of the candidates who have been certified by the virtue of their holding the accredited certificate may also be made available on NISM Skills Registry.
NISM’s Skills Registry database maintains the details of all the certified candidates and makes it available to the general public for checking the veracity of the certificates held by the candidates.
Inspection/Audit
To ensure the quality of accredited certification examinations, NISM may conduct inspections from time to time and may also audit the processes and procedures followed to conduct accredited certification examinations.
Note: The transaction proof for having requisite fund credited to NISM Account as specified above must be submitted as a supporting document at the time of submitting the application.
General Instructions for Submission of Applications
- To download the application form, please click here. The physical copy of the application should be signed by a competent authority and should be complete in all respects. The same should be submitted along with supporting documents and proof of transaction as above should be to the following address:
Ms. Rasmeet Kohli
School for Certification of Intermediaries,
National Institute of Securities Markets,
Plot No. IS 1 & IS 2, Patalganga Industrial Area,
Village Mohopada (Wasambe), Rasayani,
District Raigad,
Maharashtra – 410222.
- Any Additional information can be provided by attaching annexure to the application form.
- Application forms not submitted in the prescribed format will be rejected.
- The application form should be completed in CAPITAL LETTERS and in ENGLISH only.
- Applicants must ensure that all the entries have been correctly filled in.
- Applicants should satisfy themselves about their eligibility before applying.
- Canvassing in any form will be a disqualification.
- In all matters including eligibility, accreditation process, assessment and communication of result, the decision of NISM shall be final and binding on the applicants and no correspondence shall be entertained in this regard.
- Duly filled application form along with supporting documents as above should be sent to NISM.
- Please note that it is mandatory to provide information for all fields as specified in the criteria. The information provided will be used for the purpose of evaluation of the application.
- For any query, contact:
Ms. Rasmeet Kohli rasmeet.kohli@nism.ac.in – 02192-668433
Annexure I: Selection Criteria and Weights
| Section | Head | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| A | Background of the Organization | 50% |
| 1 | Aim/Objective of your business/organization | |
| 2 | Organizational Structure | |
| 3 | Promoters and Management of the Organization | |
| 4 | Affiliation to any recognized association/industry body | |
| 5 | Number of Certification Examinations developed and administered for the securities markets | |
| 6 | Financial Strength of the organization | |
| B | Policies and Processes followed for the Certification Examination | 50% |
| 1 | Reputation/Acceptance of the course to be accredited | |
| 2 | Clear and Well-defined Job Description | |
| 3 | Development Process of Course outline, Curriculum and Workbook | |
| 4 | Involvement of the Industry in the development of the Certification Examination | |
| 5 | Established Certification Policies and Revalidation mechanism available | |
| 6 | Team for Content Development and maintenance of examination to be accredited–Fully employed/contractual employed | |
| 7 | Number of persons appeared and passed for the particular certification applied for accreditation | |
| 8 | System for Maintaining Records of Certified Individuals | |
| 9 | Interface with the participants for the registration, cancellation, postponement, redressal of grievances, feedback mechanism | |
| 10 | Administration Policies, Processes and Quality checks |
