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SEBI has announced the launch of a new UPI address mechanism which will feature @valid handle for all SEBI-registered investor-facing intermediaries. The regulator aims to help investors easily identify legitimate SEBI-registered entities for efficient and secure payments and reduce unauthorized fund collection from unregistered entities used for personal gains.
In this mechanism, every UPI address for an intermediary will have a username and a unique handle. The username will be a readable name chosen by the intermediary followed by a suffix that identifies their category. e.g. for intermediaries related to mutual funds, the suffix will be .mf while for an investment adviser, it would be .Ia
The handle will be a unique and exclusive identifier which will be allocated to the intermediary by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) only for payment collection. This address will also have a visual identification, a green thumbs-up inside a green triangle. The intermediaries will have to include this thumbs up symbol in their QR code for investor convenience.
The intermediaries will be able to use their existing bank accounts to obtain these UPI IDs from syndicate banks. Only these self-certified syndicate banks will be allocated @valid handles by NPCI.
The daily upper limit for transactions done through UPI will be between Rs. 2-5 lakh, which will be reviewed and evaluated as necessary.
Besides this, SEBI is also developing a tool called ‘SEBI Check’ which will allow investors to verify the authenticity of UPI IDs by scanning a QR code or by entering a UPI address manually. Investors will also be able to confirm the bank details and IFSC code of the intermediary using this tool.
Both the validated UPI addresses and the SEBI Check tool will be available to users from October 1, 2025.
People looking for more information on the new payment mechanism can also look at the video released by the regulator on it here.
