The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on 23 May 2026 was reported to be actively examining a major proposal for salary-linked Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs) under which mutual fund investments could be deducted directly from employee salaries and routed into chosen mutual fund schemes, on the lines of Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) subscriptions. If approved, the change would transform mutual fund participation from a discretionary decision to a routine financial behaviour embedded in salary structures, with significant implications for household savings, capital market deepening and retirement adequacy. India already has more than 10 crore mutual fund folios and SIP monthly inflows have crossed Rs 26,000 crore in recent months, yet penetration remains well below comparable economies. The salary-linked SIP would require coordination with employers, EPFO, the Income Tax Department and Asset Management Companies, with safeguards on portability when an employee changes jobs and on consent and risk profiling. The proposal complements other SEBI reforms including UPI-based pre-IPO investments, T plus 0 settlement, Mutual Funds Lite for passive funds and Specialised Investment Funds for high-risk strategies. SEBI is a statutory regulator established under the SEBI Act, 1992 with the mandate of protecting investor interests, promoting development and regulating the securities market, and is currently chaired by Tuhin Kanta Pandey.