'Great and proactive move': Zerodha's Nithin Kamath on Sebi-Google collab to curb fraudulent investment apps

To strengthen safeguards against digital financial fraud, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has partnered with Google to introduce a 'verified' badge for investment apps on the Play Store, enabling users to identify legitimate and registered intermediaries.

Sebi Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said the initiative marks a crucial step towards strengthening investor protection amid surging retail participation and growing digital risks. "This initiative is not just about a label on an app. It is about trust and safety. It is about helping investors distinguish the genuine from the fake," he stated.

Nithin Kamath, Founder and CEO at Zerodha, lauded the development, saying, "This is a great and proactive move. The nuisance of unregistered advisory has only gotten worse."

Under the initiative, only apps of Sebi-registered entities will carry the verification mark. The label has already been rolled out for over 600 stock broker apps and will be extended to other market intermediaries in due course.

Highlighting the scale of the opportunity as well as the risks, Pandey said India's securities market now has more than 14 crore unique investors, with market capitalisation (m-cap) nearing Rs 423 lakh crore. He noted that the next phase of retail participation is yet to unfold, underscoring the need for stronger safeguards. "Growth has to be matched by protection. We must make the journey of first-time investors safer," he said.

"The verified badge will help investors identify genuine apps and make impersonation harder," Pandey said, reiterating the market regulator's message: "First verify. Then invest."

Google said the effort is part of a broader push to create a more trusted financial app ecosystem. Aditya Swamy, Managing Director of Play Partnerships at Google, said around 600 financial services apps in India have already been assigned the verified label.