SEBI, in its board meeting held on November 20, 2019, inter alia approved that the SEBI (Portfolio Managers) Regulations, 2019 replace the SEBI (Portfolio Managers) Regulations, 1993 pursuant to comments received through a consultative paper, from the public and the working group constituted to review the extant regulations. The key amendments proposed by the new regulations are: (a) minimum requirement of employing at least one person with defined eligibility criteria, in addition to a principal officer and compliance officer, by the portfolio manager, (b) enhancement of net-worth requirement of portfolio managers from Rs. 2 crores (approx. USD 280,000) to Rs. 5 crores (approx. USD 700,000); (c) minimum investment by clients of portfolio managers to be increased from Rs. 25 lakhs (approx. USD 35,000) to Rs. 50 lakhs (approx. USD 70,000), (d) investment by discretionary portfolio managers in only listed securities, money market instruments, units of mutual funds and such other securities/instruments as specified by SEBI; (e) investment by non-discretionary /advisory portfolio managers of not more than 25% of their assets under management in unlisted securities; and (f) restriction on off-market transfers from/to clients’ accounts with certain exceptions to facilitate operational convenience.