Investor Charter for Depositories and
Depository Participants

Annexure-A

Vision

Towards making Indian Securities Market - Transparent, Efficient, & Investor friendly by providing safe, reliable, transparent and trusted record keeping platform for investors to hold and transfer securities in dematerialized form.

Mission

bullet To hold securities of investors in dematerialized form and facilitate its transfer, while ensuring safekeeping of securities and protecting interest of investors.

bullet To provide timely and accurate information to investors with regard to their holding and transfer of securities held by them.

bullet To provide the highest standards of investor education, investor awareness and timely services so as to enhance Investor Protection and create awareness about Investor Rights.

Details of business transacted by the Depository and Depository Participant (DP)

bullet A Depository is an organization which holds securities of investors in electronic form. Depositories provide services to various market participants - Exchanges, Clearing Corporations, Depository Participants (DPs), Issuers and Investors in both primary as well as secondary markets. The depository carries out its activities through its agents which are known as Depository Participants (DP). Details available on the link CDSL and NDSL

Description of services provided by the Depository through Depository Participants (DPs) to investors

(1) Basic Services

Sl.No Brief about the Activity/Service Expected Timelines for processing by the DP after receipt of proper documents
1. Dematerialization of securities 7 days
2. Rematerialization of securities 7 days
3. Mutual Fund Conversion/Destatementization 5 days
4. Re-conversion/Restatementisation of Mutual fund units 7 days
5. Transmission of securities 7 days
6. Registering pledge request 15 days
7. Closure of demat account 30 days
8. Settlement Instruction For T+1 day settlements, Participants shall accept instructions from the Clients, in physical form up to 4 p.m. (in case of electronic instructions up to 6.00 p.m.) on T day for pay-in of securities.

For T+0 day settlements, Participants shall accept EPI instructions from the clients, till 11:00 AM on T day

Note: ‘T’ refers ‘Trade Day’

(2) Depositories provide special services like pledge, hypothecation, internet-based services etc. in addition to their core services and these include

Sl.No Type of Activity/Service Brief about the Activity/Service
1. Value Added Services Depositories also provide value added services such as

  1. Basic Services Demat Account (BSDA)
  2. Transposition cum dematerialization
  3. Linkages with Clearing System
  4. Distribution of cash and non-cash corporate benefits (Bonus, Rights, IPOs etc.), stock lending, demat of NSC/KVP, demat of warehouse receipts etc
2. Consolidated Account statement (CAS) CAS is issued 10 days from the end of the month (if there were transactions in the previous month) or half yearly (if no transactions).
3. Digitalization of services provided by the depositories Depositories offer below technology solutions and e-facilities to their demat account holders through DPs:
  1. E-account opening
  2. Online instructions for execution
  3. e-DIS/Demat Gateway
  4. e-CAS facility
  5. Miscellaneous services
Details of Grievance Redressal Mechanism
(1) The Process of investor grievance redressal
Sl.No Type of Activity/Service Brief about the Activity/Service
1. Investor Complaint/Grievances Investor can lodge complaint/grievance against the Depository/DP in the following ways:

a. Electronic mode -

(i) SCORES (a web based centralized grievance redressal system of SEBI) https://scores.sebi.gov.in/scores-home

Two Level Review for complaint/grievance against DP:
  • First review done by Designated Body
  • Second review done by SEBI
(ii) Respective Depository’s web portal dedicated for the filing of compliant CDSL and NDSL

(iii) Emails to designated email IDs of Depository [email protected]

The complaints/ grievances lodged directly with the Depository shall be resolved within 21 days.
2. Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) platform for online Conciliation and Arbitration If the Investor is not satisfied with the resolution provided by DP or other Market Participants, then the Investor has the option to file the complaint/ grievance on SMARTODR platform for its resolution through by online conciliation or arbitration.

https://smartodr.in/login
3. Steps to be followed in ODR for Review, Conciliation and Arbitration
  1. Investor to approach Market Participant for redressal of complaint
  2. If investor is not satisfied with response of Market Participant, he/she can escalate the complaint on SEBI SCORES portal.
  3. Alternatively, the investor may also file a complaint on SMARTODR portal for its resolution through online conciliation and arbitration.
  4. Upon receipt of complaint on SMARTODR portal, the relevant MII will review the matter and endeavour to resolve the matter between the Market Participant and investor within 21 days.
  5. If the matter could not be amicably resolved, then the Investor may request the MII to refer the matter case for conciliation.
  6. During the conciliation process, the conciliator will endeavor for amicable settlement of the dispute within 21 days, which may be extended with 10 days by the conciliator.
  7. If the conciliation is unsuccessful, then the investor may request to refer the matter for arbitration.
  8. The arbitration process to be concluded by arbitrator(s) within 30 days, which is extendableby 30 days.
Guidance pertaining to special circumstances related to market activities: Termination of the Depository Participant
Sl.No Type of special circumstances Timelines for the Activity/Service
1.
  1. Depositories to terminate the participation in case a participant no longer meets the eligibility criteria and/or any other grounds as mentioned in the bye laws like suspension of trading member by the Stock Exchanges.

  2. Participant surrenders the participation by its own wish.
Client will have a right to transfer all its securities to any other Participant of its choice without any charges for the transfer within 30 days from the date of intimation by way of letter/email.
Information Contained in Links to The Investor Charter for Depositories and DPS

This document contains the contents pertaining to the qualifier CDSL and NDSL in the Investor Charter main document. The same is to be made available by the Depositories on their websites and web-links to the same is to be provided for incorporation in the Investor Charter.

For reasons of convenience, the contents in main Charter and this document have beenmapped with the same superscript.

Value Added Services
  1. Basic Services Demat Account (BSDA): The facility of BSDA with limited services for eligible individuals was introduced with the objective of achieving wider financial inclusion and to encourage holding of demat accounts. No Annual Maintenance Charges(AMC) shall be levied, if the value of securities holding is upto Rs. 50,000. For value of holdings between Rs 50,001- 2,00,000, AMC not exceeding Rs 100 is chargeable. In case of debt securities, there are no AMC charges for holding value upto Rs 1,00,000 and a maximum of Rs 100 as AMC is chargeable for value of holdings between Rs 1,00,001 and Rs 2,00,000.

  2. Transposition cum dematerialization: In case of transposition-cum- dematerialisation, client can get securities dematerialised in the same account if the names appearing on the certificates match with the names in which the account has been opened but are in a different order. The same may be done by submitting the security certificates along with the Transposition Form and Demat Request Form.

  3. Linkages with Clearing System: For actual delivery of securities to the clearing system from the selling brokers and delivery of securities from the clearing system to the buying broker.

Consolidated Accountstatement (CAS)
  1. CAS is issued 10 days from the end of the month (if there were transactions in the previous month) or half yearly (if no transactions).

Digitization of services provided by the depositories
  1. E-account opening: Account opening through digital mode, popularly known as “On-line Account opening”, wherein investor intending to open the demat account can visit DP website, fill in the required information, submit the required documents, conduct video IPV and demat account gets opened without visiting DPs office.

  2. Online instructions for execution: internet-enabled services like Speed-e (NSDL) & Easiest (CDSL) empower a demat account holder in managing his/her securities ‘anytime-anywhere’ in an efficient and convenient manner and submit instructions online without the need to use paper. These facilities allows Beneficial Owner (BO) to submit transfer instructions and pledge instructions including margin pledge from their demat account. The instruction facilities are also available on mobile applications through android, windows and IOS platforms.

  3. e-DIS / Demat Gateway: Investors can give instructions for transfer of securities through e-DIS apart from physical DIS. Here, for on-market transfer of securities, investors need to provide settlement number along with the ISIN and quantity of securities being authorized for transfer. Client shall be required to authorize each e-DIS valid for a single settlement number / settlement date, by way of OTP and PIN/password, both generated at Depositories end. Necessary risk containment measures are being adopted by Depositories in this regard.

  4. e-CAS facility: Consolidated Account Statements are available online and could also be accessed through mobile app to facilitate the investors to view their holdings in demat form.

  5. Miscellaneous services: Transaction alerts through SMS, e-locker facilities, chatbots for instantaneously responding to investor queries etc. have also been developed.

Dos and Don’ts for Investors
Rights of investors
Responsibilities of Investors
Code of Conduct for Depositories
Code of Conduct for Participants

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