SEBI/HO/DDHS/DDHS -PoD -3/P/CIR/2025/002 — THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE BOARD OF INDIA ACT, 1992

CIRCULAR SEBI/HO/DDHS/DDHS -PoD -3/P/CIR/2025/002 To, All Registered Credit Rating Agencies, All Registered Debenture Trustees, Issuers who have listed and/or proposed to be listed Non-Convertible Securities, Securitized Debt Instruments, Security Receipts, Municipal Debt Securities or Commercial Paper Recognized Stock Exchanges, All Depositories registered with SEBI Madam/ Sir, Sub: Measures for Ease of Doing Business for Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs) – Timelines (Modification to Chapter II and Chapter III of the Master Circular for Credit Rating Agencies dated May 16, 2024) The Master Circular for CRAs SEBI/HO/DDHS/DDHS -POD3/P/CIR/2024/47 dated May 16, 2024 ("Master Circular"), inter alia, prescribes certain timelines to be followed by CRAs for review of ratings and publication of press release. One of the recommendations of the Working Group of CRAs for Ease of Doing Business ("WG") pertains to modification of approach on specifying timelines from "days" to "working days" in respect of certain requirements prescribed in the Master Circular . The WG submitted the process flow involved in complying with the relevant requirements within the extant timelines. Further, CRAs depend on external entities such as bankers and debenture trustees, particularly in order to conclusively establish and substantiate delays and defaults in debt servicing, January 07 , 2025 where it is difficult to obtain written confirmation on holidays/ non-working weekends. In order to promote Ease of Doing Business and bring about uniformity in dealing with rating reviews and publication of Press Release by CRAs, it has been decided to modify the following paras of the Master Circular as below: communication, the CRA shall issue a Press Release as enlisted at para 28.4.3 and disseminate the same o