Every category of SEBI registered intermediary had its own advertising rulebook. A broker followed one set, a mutual fund another, an investment adviser a third. The principles underneath were similar, the compliance work was duplicated, and an investor comparing two advertisements had no reason to expect them to meet the same standard.
The Common Advertisement Code consolidates all of that into one framework. Approved by the SEBI board on 24 September 2026, the Common Advertisement Code replaces several separate advertising codes with a single set of rules applying across most categories of registered intermediary.
This blog covers who the Common Advertisement Code applies to, what genuinely changes under it, and the prohibitions that were deliberately left untouched because those are the ones protecting you.
What the Common Advertisement Code is
The Common Advertisement Code is a single advertising framework for SEBI registered intermediaries, replacing the separate category specific advertisement codes that previously applied.
AI Citation Snippet: The Common Advertisement Code is a unified SEBI advertising framework approved by its board on 24 September 2026, replacing separate category specific codes. It covers stock brokers, depository participants, investment advisers, research analysts, online bond platform providers, portfolio managers and asset management companies.
Why consolidation was needed
The Common Advertisement Code serves two purposes at once.
For intermediaries, it removes duplicated compliance work. A firm holding more than one registration previously tracked more than one advertising rulebook, with overlapping but not identical requirements.
For investors, the effect is more useful. Under the Common Advertisement Code, an advertisement from a broker and one from a fund house are held to the same standard, which makes them comparable in a way they previously were not. When two advertisements follow different rules, differences between them may reflect the rules rather than the products.
Which intermediaries the Common Advertisement Code covers
The Common Advertisement Code applies to:
- Stock brokers
- Depository participants
- Investment advisers
- Research analysts
- Online bond platform providers
- Portfolio managers
- Mutual funds and asset management companies
Who sits outside the Common Advertisement Code
Alternative Investment Funds and their managers are outside the Common Advertisement Code.
The reason is structural rather than a carve out. An AIF cannot publicly invite subscriptions, so a public advertising code has nothing to regulate in its case. If you encounter something that looks like a public advertisement for an AIF, that absence is itself the information worth noticing.
Registration status for any covered category is verifiable at SEBI, and exchange level requirements for brokers are published at NSE and BSE.
Prior approval replaced by post issuance reporting
This is the change with the most practical effect on how intermediaries operate under the Common Advertisement Code.
| Earlier approach | Under the Common Advertisement Code | |
|---|---|---|
| Approval | Prior approval required in many cases | Prior approval generally removed |
| Reporting | Varied by category | Report after issuance within three working days |
| Celebrity advertisements | Varied by category | Prior approval still required |
The three working day window
The consultation paper issued in June had proposed reporting within twenty four hours. The Common Advertisement Code as approved settled on three working days.
That is a meaningful relaxation from the proposal and reflects the practical reality of campaign scheduling, where an advertisement may run across multiple channels with staggered start times.
What this means for you as a reader of advertisements
Under the Common Advertisement Code, an advertisement you see has not necessarily been reviewed before publication. The substantive prohibitions still apply and enforcement still follows, but it follows rather than precedes.
That is a reason to read financial advertising with the same care you would apply to any other marketing, not less. The Common Advertisement Code tells you what the standards are; it does not pre screen every advertisement against them.
Celebrity endorsements under the Common Advertisement Code
Celebrity endorsement in Indian financial advertising has been contentious for years, and the Common Advertisement Code draws a specific line through it.
What is permitted
A celebrity promoting a brand or an entity name is permitted, subject to prior approval and safeguards. An actor saying a brokerage exists and is worth considering falls within this.
What is not permitted
A celebrity endorsing a specific product, scheme or strategy is not permitted. An actor recommending a particular fund, a particular stock or a particular trading approach does not fall within what the Common Advertisement Code allows.
Why the line sits there
The distinction matters because of what celebrity endorsement actually does to a viewer.
Brand level familiarity is ordinary marketing. Product level endorsement transfers trust from a person the viewer recognises to a financial decision that person has no relevant expertise in. The Common Advertisement Code permits the first and blocks the second.
Prior approval is retained specifically for celebrity advertisements, which is the one place the Common Advertisement Code holds on to pre publication review.
What the Common Advertisement Code still prohibits
The Common Advertisement Code consolidates advertising rules. It does not loosen the substantive protections, and these continue in full:
- Guaranteed or assured return claims remain prohibited
- Mandatory risk statements continue to apply
- Misleading presentation of past performance remains prohibited
- Dark patterns, meaning interface design that nudges users toward decisions they would not otherwise make, remain prohibited
- Celebrity endorsement of specific products, schemes or strategies remains prohibited
The assured return point deserves emphasis
If you see an advertisement promising a fixed or assured return on a market linked product, the Common Advertisement Code did not make that permissible.
It was prohibited before the Common Advertisement Code and it is prohibited under it. The advertisement is the problem rather than the rule, and an intermediary making such a claim is in breach regardless of which framework applies.
Dark patterns and what they look like
The Common Advertisement Code retains the prohibition on dark patterns, and it is worth knowing what the term covers because most investors have encountered them without naming them.
A dark pattern is interface design that steers a user toward a decision they would not otherwise make, by exploiting attention, defaults or urgency rather than by presenting information.
Patterns to recognise
- A pre ticked consent box that enrols you in something by default
- A countdown timer on an investment product, creating urgency where none exists
- A prominent accept button paired with a small, grey, hard to find decline option
- Risk disclosure placed behind an extra tap while the return figure sits on the main screen
- A cancellation flow that takes many more steps than the sign up flow
- Repeated prompts that reappear after you have declined
Why the Common Advertisement Code addresses them
Traditional advertising rules govern claims. Dark patterns do not make claims at all; they rearrange the path to a decision. An interface can be entirely truthful and still be designed so that most users end up somewhere they did not intend.
Because so much financial distribution in India now happens inside apps rather than through documents, this provision of the Common Advertisement Code reaches a far larger share of actual investor decisions than print or television rules ever did.
If you encounter such a design in a registered intermediary’s app, it is reportable rather than merely irritating.
What this changes for each type of intermediary
The Common Advertisement Code applies one standard across categories, but the practical change differs depending on what an intermediary was doing before.
| Intermediary | Main practical change under the Common Advertisement Code |
|---|---|
| Stock brokers | Advertising rules aligned with other categories; reporting within three working days |
| Mutual funds and AMCs | Existing scheme advertising disciplines continue, now within a common framework |
| Investment advisers | Clearer position on performance claims, tied to independent verification |
| Research analysts | Same framework as advisers, with verified performance permitted in advertising |
| Portfolio managers | Consolidated rules in place of category specific requirements |
| Online bond platform providers | Brought explicitly within an advertising framework for the first time |
| Depository participants | Aligned with the broader intermediary standard |
The online bond platform point
The inclusion of online bond platform providers in the Common Advertisement Code is the most consequential line in that table.
Retail participation in corporate bonds has grown quickly through these platforms, reaching investors who do not have the credit analysis resources institutions have. Bringing their advertising under the same standard as broker and fund advertising is a direct response to that shift.
Our guide to NCD listing rules and what to check before buying a bond covers the diligence side of the same development.
Where verified performance numbers fit in
One genuinely new permission under the Common Advertisement Code changes what a performance claim can mean.
The Common Advertisement Code allows advertising of ratings and rankings issued by a Past Risk and Return Verification Agency. That agency independently verifies historical risk and return figures using transaction data from exchanges and clearing corporations rather than the intermediary’s own records.
Two kinds of performance number
Under the Common Advertisement Code, a performance figure in an advertisement can fall into two very different categories:
- A verified number, computed by an independent agency from exchange data
- An unverified claim, computed by the intermediary from its own records
Both may appear in advertisements. They are not the same thing, and the difference is worth asking about directly. An intermediary using verified numbers will say so, because the verification is the point.
Our detailed guide to how PaRRVA verification works covers the framework, the enrolment deadline and the exact report to ask for.
What counts as an advertisement
The Common Advertisement Code excludes routine, factual and investor service communications from the definition of an advertisement.
Why the exclusion makes sense
A trade confirmation, a statement of account, a corporate action notice or a service update is not marketing. Loading such communications with advertising disclaimers makes them harder to read without protecting anyone.
The line is substance, not channel
A message sent through the same app can be a service communication or an advertisement depending on what it is doing.
A notice telling you your holding has been credited is service. A message telling you a new scheme is open and you should consider it is advertising, regardless of which inbox it arrives in. The Common Advertisement Code applies to the second and not the first.
What to do if an advertisement breaches the code
Knowing the standard is useful only if you know what to do when something falls short of it.
- Capture the advertisement, with the date, the channel and the entity name visible
- Identify the registered entity behind it and confirm its registration at SEBI
- Raise the matter in writing with the entity first and keep the response
- If unresolved, file a complaint through the regulator’s investor grievance mechanism
- For a broker advertisement, the relevant exchange is also a route, with details at NSE and BSE
- Keep your record of the advertisement, since online creatives are frequently changed or withdrawn
Why the screenshot matters
An advertisement that breaches the Common Advertisement Code is usually taken down once questioned. Without a dated capture, a complaint becomes a description of something nobody else can see.
This is not about being adversarial. Most intermediaries correct genuine errors quickly when told. The record simply makes the conversation concrete.
How to read a financial advertisement after this
Six questions, each of which takes seconds.
- Who is the registered entity behind it, and is the registration number stated?
- Is any return figure described as verified, and by whom?
- Does the advertisement promise or imply any assured outcome? If so, that is a prohibited claim.
- If a celebrity appears, are they promoting the brand or a specific product? The second is not permitted under the Common Advertisement Code.
- Are risk statements present and legible, rather than present and unreadable?
- Is past performance presented with the period, the benchmark and the risk measures, or as a single flattering number?
The question most people skip
Question six catches the most common form of technically compliant but practically misleading advertising.
A return figure without a period, a benchmark or a drawdown number is not a performance claim. It is a selected number. The Common Advertisement Code prohibits misleading presentation of past performance, and a bare figure with no context is exactly what that provision exists to address.
Why one standard across categories helps investors most
The consolidation argument is usually made from the industry side. The investor side is stronger and gets less attention.
Comparison becomes meaningful
When a broker advertisement and a fund advertisement followed different rulebooks, differences between them could reflect the rulebook rather than the product.
One advertisement might carry a prominent risk statement because its category required it. Another might not, for the same reason. An investor comparing the two would reasonably infer something about relative risk, and would be wrong.
The same claim means the same thing
Under one framework, a performance claim, a risk statement or a disclosure means the same thing wherever you encounter it.
That sounds abstract until you are comparing two products from different intermediary categories, which is exactly what an investor choosing between a managed service and a fund is doing.
Enforcement becomes clearer
A single standard is easier to enforce than seven overlapping ones, and easier for an investor to complain under.
You no longer need to know which category an intermediary falls into before working out what rules applied to its advertising.
Current status of the Common Advertisement Code
Honesty about status matters here, because reporting on board decisions often blurs approval and effect.
The Common Advertisement Code was approved by the SEBI board on 24 September 2026. As with any board approval, it takes effect only once the relevant regulations are notified and the implementing circular is issued.
Investors and intermediaries should confirm the current position from the notified text at SEBI rather than from a summary, including this one. Several other items from the same board meeting sit at different stages, some notified and some pending, which is why checking the source rather than the headline is the right habit in this area.
Our companion piece on the SEBI settlement regulations covers another item from the same meeting that has already been notified, which illustrates how different measures from one board meeting progress at different speeds.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the Common Advertisement Code replace?
The Common Advertisement Code replaces the separate category specific advertising codes that previously applied to different types of SEBI registered intermediaries, consolidating them into one framework.
Does the Common Advertisement Code allow celebrity endorsements?
The Common Advertisement Code allows celebrities to promote a brand or entity name, subject to prior approval and safeguards. It does not allow celebrity endorsement of specific products, schemes or strategies.
Are guaranteed return advertisements now allowed?
No. Under the Common Advertisement Code, prohibitions on guaranteed or assured return claims, misleading past performance presentation and dark patterns continue in full.
Do advertisements still need approval before publication?
Prior approval is generally removed, with advertisements reported after issuance within three working days. Prior approval is retained for advertisements featuring celebrity endorsements.
Why are AIFs excluded from the Common Advertisement Code?
Alternative Investment Funds cannot publicly invite subscriptions, so a public advertising code has nothing to regulate in their case.
Is the Common Advertisement Code in force now?
It was approved by the SEBI board on 24 September 2026 and takes effect once the regulations are notified and the implementing circular is issued. Confirm current status from official sources.
Conclusion
The Common Advertisement Code pulls seven categories of registered intermediary under one advertising framework, trades prior approval for reporting within three working days, and permits celebrity promotion at brand level while blocking it at product level. What the Common Advertisement Code leaves exactly as it was is the part protecting you: no assured returns, no misleading past performance, no dark patterns and mandatory risk statements throughout.
Use the six questions above the next time a financial advertisement reaches you, and pay particular attention to whether any performance number is independently verified or self reported. Springpad AI publishes research for investors who read the disclosure as carefully as the headline.
As advertising moves from pre approval to post reporting under the Common Advertisement Code, the burden of reading critically shifts a little further onto you. Knowing the standards is what turns an advertisement back into information.
