NISM Series II-B Syllabus: Registrars and Transfer Agents (Mutual Fund)
All 15 chapters of the Registrars and Transfer Agents (Mutual Fund) workbook, and what each one covers.
NISM Series II-B (often searched as NISM 2B) is the certification for the mutual fund function of a Registrar and Transfer Agent, or RTA: the back office that opens folios, processes purchases and redemptions, and sends account statements. NISM's curriculum for this exam has 15 chapters.
The chapters fall into three blocks: I to IV are securities basics, V to VII are SEBI and the rules that govern RTAs, VIII to XV are mutual funds and the daily work of an RTA. NISM publishes no chapter-wise weightage, so any percentage you see per chapter is not from NISM.
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All 15 chapters at a glance
Chapter titles as NISM's curriculum names them.
| Chapter | What it covers |
|---|---|
| I. Introduction to Securities | Equity, debt and hybrid capital |
| II. Characteristics of Equity Shares | Shareholder rights, corporate actions, preference shares, rights and preferential issues |
| III. Characteristics of Debt Securities | Yield, types of debt, credit rating, money market instruments |
| IV. Characteristics of Other Securities | Warrants, convertibles, depository receipts, FCCBs, ETFs, investment trusts |
| V. SEBI: Role and Regulations | SEBI Act 1992, investor protection, IEPF, SEBI's RTA regulations |
| VI. Basics of Registrars and Transfer Agents | RTA functions, Investor Service Centres, Qualified RTAs, depository interface, Account Aggregator role |
| VII. Registrar and Transfer Agents Regulations | LODR 2015, RTA Regulations 1993, QRTA monitoring, cyber security, ultimate beneficial owner, inter-operable platform |
| VIII. Basics of Mutual Funds | Open and close ended schemes, AUM, total expense ratio, net assets |
| IX. Mutual Fund Structure and Constituents | Sponsor, trustees, AMC, custodian, other service providers |
| X. Mutual Fund Products | Plans, product labelling, scheme classification and documents |
| XI. Operational Concepts of Mutual Funds | NFO, applicable NAV, cut-off time, demat units, tax reporting, segregated portfolios |
| XII. Investors in Mutual Funds | Investor types, KYC, nomination, FATCA and CRS, Investor Charter, death reporting |
| XIII. Banking Operations in Mutual Funds | Payment mechanisms, bank accounts, electronic clearing, third party verification |
| XIV. Financial Transactions | Purchases, redemptions, switches, systematic transactions, turnaround times |
| XV. Non-Financial Transactions | Name, address, bank and nominee changes, pledge, transmission of units, MITRA |
Chapters I to IV: securities basics
Chapter I explains equity and debt as two ways a company raises money. Chapters II and III take each in turn: shareholder rights and corporate actions, then coupon, yield and credit rating. Chapter IV collects the rest, from warrants to ETFs. Series V-A holders can treat this block as revision, but do not skip chapter III: yield questions catch candidates who only know equity.
Chapters V to VII: SEBI and the RTA rulebook
Chapter V sets out SEBI's powers under the SEBI Act 1992, the IEPF and its RTA regulations. Chapter VI describes the RTA business: Official Points of Acceptance (where a transaction is accepted and time stamped), Qualified RTAs (large RTAs that SEBI monitors more closely) and the Account Aggregator role.
Chapter VII is the heaviest regulation chapter: the RTA Regulations 1993 (replaced by SEBI's 2025 RTA regulations in December 2025), LODR 2015, cyber security and systems audit for QRTAs, ultimate beneficial owner rules and the inter-operable platform. SEBI updates these through circulars, so read the current regulations, not old notes.
Free account, this exam preselected.
Chapters VIII to XV: mutual funds and the RTA's daily work
Chapters VIII to X explain the product: who runs a fund (sponsor, trustees, AMC, custodian), what AUM and expense ratio mean, and how schemes are classified and documented. Chapter XI is the operations core: applicable NAV and cut-off time, demat units, segregated portfolios and tax reporting.
Chapter XII is the investor record: KYC, nomination, FATCA and CRS, the Investor Charter and the centralised death-reporting mechanism. Chapter XIII is money movement: bank accounts, electronic clearing and payment only to a validated account.
Chapters XIV and XV are where an RTA employee lives. Financial transactions (purchases, redemptions, switches, systematic transactions) each carry a turnaround time. Non-financial transactions change a folio without moving money: name, address, bank details, nominee, pledge, transmission of units. Chapter XV ends with MITRA, the Mutual Fund Investment Tracing and Retrieval Assistant, which helps investors trace forgotten holdings.
How II-B tests the syllabus
The paper is 100 MCQs of 1 mark each in 2 hours, with no negative marking; you pass at 50 out of 100 (50%). Chapters I to IV produce definition questions. Chapters XI to XV produce process questions: which NAV applies after the cut-off time, which document supports a transmission request, whether a change of bank details is financial or non-financial. The trap is answering from a distributor's view (Series V-A thinking) instead of the RTA's view: the record, the timestamp and the documents.
FAQs
How many chapters are there in NISM Series II-B?expand_more
15, from Introduction to Securities (chapter I) to Non-Financial Transactions (chapter XV), as listed on NISM's curriculum page.
What is the chapter-wise weightage for NISM 2B?expand_more
NISM does not publish one. Any chapter percentage you see for II-B is not from NISM. Spend most of your time on chapters XI to XV, where the RTA process questions come from.
Is the NISM II-B syllabus the same as Series II-A?expand_more
No. II-A is the corporate RTA exam, about share registers of listed companies. II-B is the mutual fund RTA exam. Both open with securities basics and SEBI's RTA regulations, then diverge.
Is NISM II-B the exam for mutual fund distributors?expand_more
No. Distributors need Series V-A (or V-B for SEBI's new cadre). II-B is for RTA staff. The two overlap on mutual fund basics; II-B goes much deeper into RTA operations and regulation.
Does the II-B syllabus include numericals?expand_more
A few: yield from chapter III, NAV and total expense ratio from chapters VIII and XI, and applicable NAV worked from a transaction time and the cut-off. Most of the paper is conceptual and process-based.
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