Market Infrastructure Institutions: The infrastructure to facilitate the transactions in securities market (viz. issue, purchase and sale of securities) is provided by Stock Exchanges, Depositories and Clearing Corporations. These institutions are known as Market Infrastructure Institutions (MIIs). A list of SEBI registered market infrastructure institutions (MIIs) is available on the link: https://www.sebi.gov.in/intermediaries.html
The Stock Exchanges provide a nation-wide computerized screen based trading platform to facilitate buying and selling of securities, through their registered stock brokers and at market determined prices, in a fair manner. The list of SEBI recognized stock exchanges in India is available on the link: https://www.sebi.gov.in/stock-exchanges.html
The major nation-wide stock exchanges are BSE Limited (BSE), National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) and Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India Limited (MSE).
Clearing Corporations: The main function of Clearing Corporations is to guarantee the settlement of trades executed on the Stock Exchanges. In other words, Clearing corporations guarantee that every buyer will get the securities which are bought by him and every seller of securities will get money for the securities sold by him.
Depositories: Depositories are institutions that hold securities of investors in dematerialized / electronic form and provide demat services to the investors through their Depository Participants (DP). There are two depositories in our country namely, National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) and Central Depository Services (India) Limited (CDSL). Under each Depository, there are registered Depository Participants (DPs) (like branches of banks), which provide various services to the investors like opening and maintaining of a Demat account, dematerialization of shares, etc.
Market Intermediaries are important participants in the smooth functioning of the primary and the secondary markets. These market intermediaries support the process of executing orders for buying or selling of securities, dealing in securities and providing information relevant to the trading of securities. Some important intermediaries are stock brokers, depository participants, merchant bankers, share and transfer agents, registrars, etc. All such intermediaries are registered with SEBI and are required to abide by the prescribed norms to protect the investors. A list of SEBI recognized market intermediaries may be accessed on the following link: https://www.sebi.gov.in