Settlement and compounding of enforcement cases emerged a major revenue source for the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in 2024-25, with receipts under the framework jumping nearly eight-fold to ₹814.55 crore from ₹104.13 crore in the previous year, according to the regulator’s audited annual statement of accounts.
The sharp rise in settlements contributed to SEBI’s total income increasing to ₹2,713 crore in FY25 from ₹2,075 crore in FY24, a growth of about 31 per cent. The regulator’s capital base also strengthened, with its corpus or capital fund rising to ₹7,234.66 crore as of March 31, 2025, compared with ₹5,572.82 crore a year earlier.
The accounts show that settlement and compounding receipts were one of the largest individual inflows for the year. As per the statement, SEBI received “₹814.55 crore towards settlement / compounding charges during the year as against ₹104.13 crore in the previous year.”
Under SEBI’s settlement framework, entities facing enforcement proceedings can resolve matters without admission or denial of guilt by paying a settlement amount and complying with specified conditions.
Penalty recoveries
The accounts also note that a portion of the enforcement-related collections is transferred to the government. “In terms of Section 15JA of SEBI (Amendment) Act 2002, the Board remits penalties collected… to the Consolidated Fund of India,” the report said.
Apart from settlements, the regulator recorded ₹10.95 crore towards penalties during the year, up from ₹2.98 crore in the previous year.
Income from investments
SEBI’s income from investments also increased during the year, rising to ₹325.47 crore from ₹192.41 crore in FY24, reflecting the growing size of its investment pool.
The regulator’s investments remain largely in low-risk instruments. The balance sheet shows ₹2,857 crore invested in government securities and ₹2,215 crore placed in deposits with scheduled banks, along with ₹30 crore invested in the National Centre for Financial Education.
These investments form a substantial portion of the regulator’s financial assets and provide a steady stream of income through interest and returns.
Audit observations
However, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), which audited the accounts, flagged certain internal control and reconciliation issues.
Among them were discrepancies relating to lease deposits and asset records. The audit report said that “there were unreconciled differences in the lease deposits as reflected on the liability side of the financial statements and lease deposit liability calculated based on executed lease agreements.”
It also pointed out that in the physical verification report “certain assets were marked ‘disposed of’ but were not removed or discarded from the books.”
Despite these observations, the overall financial position of the regulator strengthened during the year, supported by higher income and a larger corpus.
The spike in settlements suggests that enforcement actions and negotiated case closures played a significant role in boosting SEBI’s revenues in FY25, underscoring the growing scale of regulatory activity in India’s capital markets.