New rules on delivery instruction slips from Oct: Sebi

Market regulator Sebi today said its new framework to strengthen the supervisory and monitoring role of depositories and their participants for issuance and processing of Delivery Instruction Slips will come into force from October.

As per earlier plan, the new norms were to take effect from July 7.

A DIS is used by sellers of securities to instruct their depository participants to debit their demat account.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India, which issued the norms on issuance and processing of DIS on January 7, had said that the new framework would come into effect after six months - July 7.

In a circular issued today, Sebi said: "In light of the difficulties expressed by the depositories and the depository participants (DPs) and considering their request, it has been decided to make the circular effective from October 01, 2014.

Further, Sebi said that a period of one month may be given for receipt of DIS by the Beneficial Owners (BO).

"The DPs may accept old DIS during this transit period. Further, while issuing new DIS the DPs shall intimate the BO that old DIS cannot be used after the new DIS is received," regulator added.

According to new guidelines, depositories needs to ensure that the DIS is standardised across all depository participants in terms of serial number and layout and size of DIS to facilitate scanning and easy retrievability of records.

The depositories would have to prescribe a standard method of serial number and ensure that these numbers are unique.

Also, DPs need to ensure that same DIS will not be used for giving both market and off-market instruction. Besides, a single DIS will not be used for transactions with multiple execution dates.

The depositories will have to ensure that their participants have adequate infrastructure, systems and processes to implement scanning, storage and transfer of the scanned DIS in the manner specified by the depositories.

They also need to ensure that the systems set up by the DPs maintain proper records of all scanned DIS images and put in place adequate checks and procedures to prevent unauthorised changes.