RAASB Fee Breakdown (2026)
RAASB is the BSE-run body that administers Research Analysts for SEBI. The phrase "RAASB fees" gets used loosely to mean the whole cost of getting registered and staying registered. Some of it is a fee you pay and never see again. Some of it is a deposit that stays your money. This post separates the two and lays out every line in one table.
Note: General information, not legal or compliance advice. RAASB and SEBI fees are set by circular and revised from time to time. Confirm every figure against the current SEBI and RAASB circulars at sebi.gov.in before you budget or pay.
What RAASB is, and why the costs sit there
RAASB stands for Research Analyst Administration and Supervisory Body. It is run by BSE Ltd and acts on SEBI's behalf to administer and supervise Research Analysts. Registration still flows through SEBI, but the day-to-day administration, supervision, and the deposit all sit with RAASB. That is why the costs an RA carries get bundled under one label, even though they are paid to different places and behave very differently.
The single most useful thing to understand before reading any number: a fee leaves your pocket for good, a deposit does not. The application fee is gone the moment you pay it. The deposit is capital you park under lien. Both show up in your setup budget, but only one is a true cost. Mixing them up is how people end up quoting scary headline figures for getting registered.
The full fee table
Here is every line an RA typically encounters around RAASB registration, with the type of cost flagged. Where a specific figure is set by circular rather than fixed, the table says so. Do not treat the "per circular" rows as zero; treat them as "look it up".
Application and NISM figures as commonly applied for individual registration. Registration, RAASB administration, and inspection charges are set by SEBI and RAASB circular and are revised over time. Verify the exact current amounts before you act.
The one-time fees you pay to get in
For an individual applying directly, the headline cost is small. The SEBI application fee is ₹10,000, non-refundable, paid through SEBI's online portal when you submit. If you register a body corporate or a partnership firm instead of yourself, that application fee is ₹50,000. The choice between individual and entity registration is a business decision first, but note the entity route costs five times as much at the application stage.
Before any of that, you sit the NISM Series XV-RA exam. The exam fee is ₹1,500 per attempt, paid to NISM, separate from anything SEBI charges. There is no limit on attempts, so a retake is another ₹1,500. For most applicants the full one-time outlay to get registered, exam plus application, lands in the low tens of thousands of rupees, not lakhs. The deposit is what makes the total look larger, and the deposit is not spent.
A registration fee can also apply on top of the application fee. Where it does, the amount is set by SEBI and RAASB circular rather than a number you can assume, so the table lists it as "per circular". Look up the live figure on the SEBI portal at the time you apply. For the step-by-step of the application itself, the SEBI Research Analyst registration guide walks through the documents, the portal, and the 30 to 90 day processing window.
The deposit: capital, not a cost
This is the line that confuses people. SEBI scrapped the old net-worth test for Research Analysts and replaced it with a deposit that scales with your client base. The deposit is held with a scheduled bank and marked as a lien in favour of RAASB. It is security, not a payment. You do not hand it over and lose it.
The deposit is graded by the maximum number of clients you had on any single day in the previous financial year:
Slabs as commonly reported. The deposit requirement has been refined through SEBI circulars; verify the exact band that applies to you before you act.
A new solo practice sits in the first slab: up to 150 clients means ₹1,00,000 set aside. That is the realistic starting number for most independent RAs. The bigger slabs only bite once you are serving thousands of clients, which is a different scale of business. The deeper mechanics, what forms the deposit can take and how lien works, are covered in the SEBI Research Analyst deposit and net worth guide.
The deposit does not have to sit as idle cash. The original form was a scheduled-bank fixed deposit under lien to RAASB. A later circular widened it to allow liquid mutual fund or overnight fund units held under lien. Either way the money keeps earning a modest return while it serves as security. So the "cost" of the deposit is really the opportunity cost of locking up that capital, not the capital itself.
Recurring and RAASB administration fees
There is no separate annual renewal fee for the SEBI registration itself. That is the good news for budgeting: getting registered is not a yearly tax. But it does not mean zero ongoing cost.
RAASB provides ongoing supervision, and it charges for that. The amount and the billing cycle are set by RAASB circular, not by a number you can quote off the cuff, so the fee table flags this as "per circular". SEBI may also levy inspection or compliance fees in specific situations, which are not a fixed annual charge. Treat both as costs you confirm against the live RAASB and SEBI schedule rather than assuming. If a figure matters to your budget and it is set by circular, look it up; do not guess.
Beyond regulatory fees, the real recurring spend for a working RA is operational: the software you run the practice on, the cost of delivering research to clients, and the time spent on record keeping under Regulation 25. Those are not RAASB fees, but they belong in the same budget conversation because they are what you actually pay month to month.
Putting the setup budget together
For a solo individual starting out, the picture is straightforward. The NISM exam is ₹1,500. The SEBI application fee is ₹10,000. A registration fee, where it applies, is whatever the current circular sets. The deposit at the first slab is ₹1,00,000, and that is your money, parked under lien, still earning. So the true sunk cost to get registered is in the low tens of thousands, and the largest number on the page, the deposit, is capital you keep.
That framing matters when you size your pricing. The deposit and fees are a one-time hurdle. The recurring math that decides whether the practice works is fees in versus costs out, year after year. What you can charge per client is itself capped by SEBI, so revenue has a ceiling per client and you scale by adding clients. The Research Analyst fees guide covers what you are allowed to charge clients, which is the other half of this budget.
Set the deposit up once, keep it aligned as your client count crosses a slab boundary, and the regulatory cost side of the practice is largely settled. From there the lever you control is operational efficiency: how cheaply and how compliantly you can serve each client.
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What is RAASB?
RAASB is the Research Analyst Administration and Supervisory Body, run by BSE Ltd under SEBI. It administers and supervises Research Analysts on SEBI's behalf: processing registrations, supervising conduct, and holding the deposit under lien. When people talk about RAASB fees they usually mean the full set of costs an RA pays around registration, from the SEBI application fee to the deposit and any RAASB administration charges.
What is the SEBI Research Analyst application fee?
The application fee for an individual Research Analyst is ₹10,000, non-refundable, paid through SEBI's online portal at sebi.gov.in. For a body corporate or partnership firm the application fee is ₹50,000. NISM exam fees of ₹1,500 per attempt apply separately. Confirm the current figures against the latest SEBI and RAASB circular before you pay, since fees are revised periodically.
Is there an annual fee for Research Analysts?
There is no separate annual renewal fee for the SEBI registration itself. SEBI may levy inspection or compliance fees, and RAASB charges fees for the supervision it provides. The exact recurring amounts and how they are billed are set by RAASB and SEBI circular, so check the current schedule rather than assuming a fixed yearly number.
How much is the RAASB deposit?
The deposit is graded by the maximum number of clients you had on any single day in the previous financial year. It ranges from ₹1,00,000 for up to 150 clients to ₹10,00,000 for more than 10,000 clients. It is held with a scheduled bank under lien to RAASB, and can take the form of a fixed deposit or liquid or overnight fund units. It is not a fee. The money stays yours.
Is the RAASB deposit a fee I lose?
No. The deposit is not spent. It sits with a scheduled bank under lien to RAASB as security, and a fixed deposit or liquid fund still earns a return for you. A fee like the ₹10,000 application charge is money paid out and gone. The deposit is capital you set aside. Treat them as two different lines in your budget.