Back in 2020, there were reports that SEBI was exploring Direct Market Access (DMA) for investors to place orders directly with exchanges.
Now, in 2026, SEBI has released a consultation paper proposing to extend DMA to all investors, including retail.
If this moves forward, order execution itself could become more of a commodity. Brokers may have to compete more on products, APIs, research, and overall user experience than on market access.
How do you see this evolving? Does retail DMA materially change the brokerage business, or is it simply another infrastructure upgrade?