Market intermediaries will now have a unique Unified Payments Interface (UPI) address to collect funds from clients, as regulator Sebi unveiled the mechanism - named as 'Valid' - on June 11 after incorporating industry feedback following a consultations, and after assessing the readiness of market participants.

The UPI payment mechanism will go live from October 1, 2025.

Sebi’s unique and safer payment mechanism for investors, named ‘Valid’, can be used by market intermediaries to collect funds from clients such as payments to brokers, mutual funds, research analysts, investment advisers, and others.

‘Valid’ is a unique, Unified Payments Interface (UPI)-based payment ID issued by banks only to Sebi-registered entities.

The UPI IDs of the regulated entities will include the handle name ‘@valid’ combined with the bank name, to ensure easy identification by investors. A green thumbs up icon in a triangle will also be marked, to show the legitimacy of the transaction.

For example, if it is for a broker ABC, and money is to be collected through the UPI platform of HDFC Bank, then the handle will be abc.brk@validhdfc. Similarly, for a mutual fund, it will be abc.mf@validhdfc.