According to media reports, the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI), in a communication to distributors, has discontinued the practice of accepting the mark sheet issued by the National Institute of Securities Market (NISM) for the purpose of renewal of AMFI Registration Number (ARN) of the mutual fund distributors. NISM was revalidating the existing certificate for a period of three years from the date of passing the examination. However, the validity date of existing certificate was not being calculated while computing the validity of the renewed/ revalidated certificate in such cases. As a consequence, persons choosing to appear for NISM exam for renewal of existing NISM certification, were losing the benefit of the unexpired period of the validity period of their existing NISM certificate.