The Competition Commission of India has ordered four major trustee companies and their trade body to stop engaging in anti-competitive behaviour. The directive, issued on 2 September 2026, targets the Trustees’ Association of India, IDBI Trusteeship Services Limited, Axis Trustee Services Limited, and SBI CAP Trustee Company Limited, along with certain individuals at these organisations.
What the CCI found
The Commission discovered that these entities had collectively fixed benchmark prices for debenture trusteeship services during the financial years 2020-21 and 2021-22. Meeting minutes and email exchanges showed that the Trustees’ Association of India coordinated minimum fees for its members providing these services.
This price-fixing arrangement prevented individual trustee companies from making independent commercial decisions. The CCI also found that both member and non-member organisations were pressured not to offer services to debenture issuers below the agreed benchmark fee. This coordinated approach amounted to market control and cartelisation under the Competition Act, 2002.
The CCI determined that the conduct violated sections 3(3)(a) and 3(3)(b) read with section 3(1) of the Act. Individual officials at these organisations were also found liable under section 48 of the same law.
What this means for you
If you or your company issue debentures, you should now be able to negotiate trustee fees more freely without facing pressure to pay artificially inflated benchmark rates. Trustee companies can no longer collectively decide what they will charge for supervising debenture securities.
The order does not impose financial penalties on these entities, though it requires them to stop the anti-competitive conduct immediately. The decision is available on the CCI website for public review.