SEBI issues new policy on data sharing for research, restricts access to trade logs, holding details

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Friday issued a uniform policy for stock exchanges, clearing corporations, and depositories to regulate the sharing of market data for research purposes.

The policy mandates market infrastructure institutions (MIIs) to segregate available data into two baskets.

The first basket includes aggregated and analysed data – for example, business growth metrics across market segments, trading statistics, category-wise turnover and open interest, corporate bond trade reports, and investor grievances details– that can be shared publicly without revealing personal, sensitive, or confidential information.

"The principle should be to avoid disclosing any personal, sensitive or confidential information in public domain," the regulator said.

MIIs are also required to provide anonymised, non-identifiable data to researchers free of cost for requests up to 2GB annually. Data exceeding this limit, or requiring additional processing, may be provided on a cost-recovery basis.

However, the second category includes sensitive information such as KYC details, trade logs, and holding information of entities or individuals, which will not be shared publicly. Even anonymised data capable of identifying entities or individuals, directly or indirectly, will remain restricted. Examples include PAN-linked trade data, unique client codes, client-wise positions and margins, and delivery or collateral information linked to specific entities.

"All Stock Exchanges, Depositories and Clearing Corporations are advised to identify data in the abovementioned baskets and accordingly frame their data sharing policy," SEBI said.

"Further, the categorisation of data into the two baskets should be uniform and market segment wise for each category of MIIs (Stock Exchanges, Depositories and Clearing Corporations)," it added.

SEBI has directed MIIs to develop data-sharing policies segment-wise and seek the regulator’s approval within 60 days. These policies will also be reviewed annually. MIIs are required to display sample data files and a specimen request form for researchers on their websites, with researchers expected to justify their data requirements in line with their research hypotheses.