Retail Investor Inheritance: Sebi Chair Highlights Challenges

Mumbai, Feb 20 (PTI) Sebi Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch on Thursday said the heirs of pioneering retail investors who were among the first to take bets in India's capital markets are struggling to inherit the investments.

Underlining that the capital markets regulator has been working very hard to make inheritance easier, Buch said it is also a reality that new problems are being discovered as the investors pass on.

"That generation is now passing on and the heirs are inheriting those securities. Issues which were not even an issue 20 years ago are today a problem, because heirs have lost track of where are those investments, how do you access them, how do I know where these things are just lying," Buch said.

She applauded this generation of investors, calling them as "pioneering investors and frontier folk" who took on bets in the capital markets.

Speaking at the launch of an unified investor app launched by depositories NSDL and CDSL, Buch said the newly launched platform, which consolidates all the holdings of a single investor, will be of help to the heirs.

Buch said such a facility was available only to the big investors till now, and appreciated how depositories who otherwise compete for business in the market have joined forces to democratise access for investors.

The new app will show consolidating holdings across brokerages and demat accounts in real time, along with margin positions and open positions.

An investor will also be able to get access to the information being sent to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) by the depositories, Sebi's Whole-Time Member K C Varshney said.

Buch also exhorted the depositories to add the analysis feature on the app beyond the current system of merely informing the investor.