Sebi said on Thursday, 22 October 2026, that clearing corporations will not collect margin from brokers on a client’s later buy or sell trades in the cash segment, up to the value of shares for which early pay-in has been accepted. The change is meant to ease margin needs for clients who have sold shares and delivered them early.
What happened
Early pay-in (EPI) means delivering shares to the clearing corporation before the official settlement deadline. A clearing corporation is the body that guarantees and settles trades on an exchange. Margin is the money or collateral a client must keep aside to cover the risk of a trade.
Under the circular, where a client has a net sell obligation in a settlement (sold more than bought) and the EPI request has been accepted, the clearing corporation will, in real time, not collect margin from the trading member or clearing member on the client’s later positions. The waiver goes up to the amount of accepted EPI.
How the value is worked out
- The clearing corporation calculates the available EPI value on the trade date.
- That value is the lower of the value of securities for which EPI was made and the value of securities sold.
- If the client takes a cash-segment position the same day using this benefit, the clearing corporation checks available margin after reducing the eligible EPI value.
BusinessLine reported that existing guidelines already let EPI value count towards margin for the sale transaction and later positions, and that the new framework covers subsequent buy and sell positions on the same day.
When the benefit is withdrawn
The benefit ends if the client closes out the sale position in the shares that earned it. In that case the EPI value is taken out of the calculation, and whatever margin the client now lacks is covered by blocking the broker’s own pledged assets (its proprietary collateral), not the client’s.
This does not apply to trade-for-trade securities, because those trades are settled on a gross basis, according to Sebi.
What it means for you
If you sell shares and deliver them early, you may be able to take fresh positions in the cash market that day without a separate margin being collected on the portion covered by your accepted EPI. How this appears in your account will depend on your broker’s systems.
Sebi has also told trading members to make sure their risk systems let clients square off EPI-backed positions or take new ones only when the required client margin is available. So brokers can still apply checks.
Sebi said the decision followed proposals from the Broker Industry Standards Forum, recommendations of its Risk Management Review Committee and internal deliberations. You can read more about the regulator in our explainer on what is SEBI.
Background
Clearing corporations must change their rules and systems and publish the circular on their websites. BusinessLine reported that the provisions take effect four months from the date the circular was issued, so the relief is not immediate.
