NISM Series IX Syllabus: Merchant Banking
All 8 chapters of the Merchant Banking workbook, and what each one covers.
The NISM Series IX Merchant Banking curriculum has 8 chapters. The first three set the scene: the capital market, what a merchant banker is, and the SEBI rules a merchant banker must register under and follow. Chapters 4 to 6 are the core of the job, issue management: the terms, the process, underwriting, and the merchant banker's own obligations and due diligence. Chapters 7 and 8 cover the other mandates: takeovers, disinvestment, buybacks, delisting and more.
NISM does not publish a weightage for any Series IX chapter. A site that shows a percentage per chapter has made it up. What NISM does publish is the chapter list with its sub-topics, and that is what this page follows.
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All 8 chapters at a glance
Chapter titles as NISM's curriculum page names them, with the sub-topics each one lists.
| Chapter | What it covers |
|---|---|
| 1. Introduction to Capital Market | What the capital market is, the products traded in the Indian securities market, its participants, its regulators, and the role of an investment banker in private equity |
| 2. Introduction to the Merchant Banking | The concept and evolution of merchant banking, merchant banking in India, and the regulatory framework for merchant bankers in India |
| 3. Registration, Code of Conduct & General Obligations of Merchant Bankers in India | How a merchant banker registers with SEBI, the code of conduct, general obligations and responsibilities, and investor grievance redressal through SCORES |
| 4. Issue Management: Important Terms | The vocabulary of an offering: the terms used across public issues, rights issues and private placements |
| 5. Issue Management: Process and Underwriting | Issue management, obligations relating to issues, pricing, underwriting, issuance conditions and procedures, minimum subscription, allotment, refund and payment of interest, post-issue functions, reporting and compliance |
| 6. Issue Management: General Obligations of Merchant Bankers and Due Diligence | The merchant banker's general obligations in issue management, then preferential issues, qualified institutional placements (QIPs), rights issues and Indian Depository Receipts (IDRs) |
| 7. Other Merchant Banking Activities: Mergers, Acquisitions & Takeovers | Mergers, acquisitions and takeovers, and the SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011 |
| 8. Other Merchant Banking Activities: Disinvestment, Buyback of Equity Shares | Disinvestment, and the merchant banker's role in buybacks, delisting, debt securities, share based employee benefits, exit offers to dissenting shareholders, SME issues and alternative investment funds (AIFs) |
Chapters 1 to 3: the market and the merchant banker's rulebook
Chapter 1 names the products, the participants (issuers, intermediaries, investors) and the regulators, and closes with what an investment banker does in a private equity deal. Chapter 2 defines merchant banking, traces how it grew in India, and lists the laws and SEBI regulations that bind a merchant banker.
Chapter 3 reads like a compliance manual. It covers registration under the SEBI (Merchant Bankers) Regulations, 1992, the code of conduct, the general obligations that come with the licence, and how investor complaints flow through SCORES, SEBI's online complaint system.
Chapters 4 to 6: issue management
Chapter 4 is a glossary: the terms an offer document uses, from the kinds of issue (IPO, further public offer, rights issue, preferential issue, QIP) to the parties and documents around them. Learn it first; chapters 5 and 6 assume you know the words.
Chapter 5 walks a public issue end to end: the merchant banker's obligations, how an issue is priced, underwriting, the conditions an issuer must meet before it can come to market, minimum subscription, allotment, refunds and the interest payable on delay, and the reporting that follows listing. Chapter 6 turns to the merchant banker's own duties in that process, with due diligence at the centre, and then covers the issue types that run on different rules: preferential issues, QIPs, rights issues and IDRs. SEBI's ICDR Regulations (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) sit under all three chapters.
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Chapters 7 and 8: takeovers, buybacks, delisting and the rest
Chapter 7 is about control changing hands. It explains mergers, acquisitions and takeovers, then works through the SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011: when an acquirer must make an open offer to the public shareholders, and what the merchant banker does as manager to that offer.
Chapter 8 collects the other mandates where SEBI requires a merchant banker. Disinvestment of government holdings, buybacks under the SEBI (Buy-Back of Securities) Regulations, 2018, delisting under the SEBI (Delisting of Equity Shares) Regulations, 2021, debt issues, share based employee benefit schemes, the exit offer a company must give shareholders who dissent from a change in the use of issue proceeds, SME issues and AIFs. Do not skip the back half of the workbook.
How Series IX tests the syllabus
The paper is 100 single-mark MCQs with 0.25 marks deducted for a wrong answer. Chapters 1 and 2 produce definition questions. Chapters 3 to 8 produce rule questions: who must do what, within how many days, and which regulation says so. The common trap is mixing up the rulebooks. Minimum subscription, lock-in and disclosure questions come from the ICDR Regulations; open offer questions from the Takeover Regulations; buyback and delisting each have their own regulation. Check the issue type in the question before you answer.
FAQs
How many chapters are there in the NISM Series IX syllabus?expand_more
8, from Introduction to Capital Market (chapter 1) to Other Merchant Banking Activities: Disinvestment, Buyback of Equity Shares (chapter 8), as listed on NISM's curriculum page for the Merchant Banking exam.
What is the chapter-wise weightage for NISM Series IX?expand_more
NISM does not publish one. Any chapter percentage you see for Series IX is not from NISM. Plan your study around chapters 3 to 8, which carry the SEBI rules.
What is merchant banking in NISM?expand_more
In the NISM syllabus, merchant banking means the SEBI-regulated work of managing a company's capital market transactions: public and rights issues, QIPs, open offers, buybacks, delisting and similar mandates. A merchant banker is the SEBI-registered intermediary that runs these transactions and certifies due diligence to SEBI. Chapter 2 defines the term and chapter 3 covers the registration and conduct rules.
Does the NISM Series IX syllabus have numericals?expand_more
Few. The curriculum is mostly rules and definitions. Expect simple arithmetic from chapter 5, such as whether an issue has reached minimum subscription, and the day counts and thresholds written into the regulations.
Which SEBI regulations does the Series IX syllabus cover?expand_more
The Merchant Bankers Regulations, 1992 (chapter 3), the ICDR Regulations (chapters 4 to 6), the Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers Regulations, 2011 (chapter 7), and the Buy-Back, Delisting, debt listing and share based employee benefit regulations (chapter 8).
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