INVESTOR CHARTER FOR DEPOSITORIES AND DEPOSITORY PARTICIPANTS

This charter outlines the vision, mission, services, grievance mechanisms, and investor rights for all depository participants operating under SEBI regulations.

1. 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.

2. Mission

  • To hold securities of investors in dematerialized form and facilitate its transfer while ensuring safekeeping of securities and protecting interest of investors.
  • To provide timely and accurate information to investors regarding their holdings and transfer of securities held by them.
  • To provide the highest standards of investor education, awareness, and timely services to enhance Investor Protection and awareness about Investor Rights.

3. Details of Business Transacted by the Depository and Depository Participant (DP)

A Depository is an organization that 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 and secondary markets. The depository carries out its activities through its agents known as Depository Participants (DPs).

4.Description of services provided by the Depository through DepositoryParticipants (DPs) to investors

Basic Services

S. No Brief about the Activity / Service Expected Timelines (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 Depositories to accept physical DIS for pay-in of securities up to 4 p.m. and DIS in electronic form up to 6 p.m. on T+1 day

5.Depositories provide special services like pledge, hypothecation, internet-basedservices etc. in addition to their core services and these include

S. 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.)
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 Depositories offer technology solutions and e-facilities:
  1. E-account opening
  2. Online instructions for execution
  3. e-DIS / Demat Gateway
  4. e-CAS facility
  5. Miscellaneous services

6. Details of Grievance Redressal Mechanism

The Process of Investor Grievance Redressal

S. 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:
  1. Electronic mode:
    1. SCORES 2.0 (web based centralized grievance redressal system of SEBI)
      Two Level Review for complaint/grievance against DP:
      - First review by Designated Body
      - Second review by SEBI.
    2. Respective Depository's web portal
    3. Emails to designated email IDs of Depository
  2. Offline mode: Investors can send physical letters to CDSL at the registered office address.
2 Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) platform If the Investor is not satisfied with the resolution provided by DP or other Market Participants, they can file on SMARTODR platform for resolution through online conciliation or arbitration.
https://smartodr.in/login
3 Steps for ODR – Review, Conciliation and Arbitration
  • Investor to approach Market Participant for redressal of complaint.
  • If not satisfied, escalate on SEBI SCORES portal.
  • Alternatively, file on SMARTODR portal for online conciliation and arbitration.
  • Relevant MII will review and endeavour to resolve within 21 days.
  • If unresolved, Investor may request referral for conciliation.
  • Conciliator will endeavour for amicable settlement within 21 days (extendable by 10 days).
  • If conciliation is unsuccessful, Investor may request referral for arbitration.
  • Arbitration to be concluded within 30 days (extendable by 30 days).
4 Claim to be filed by Beneficial Owner The Beneficial Owner who suffered a loss due to the actions of DP/CDSL needs to file their claim along with:
  • Statement of claim
  • Details of estimated loss (including calculation) and supporting documents
  • FIR Copy (in case of alleged fraud and infidelity of employee)
  • Declaration stating that same relief has not been sought before any other fora
Hard copy to be addressed to the CDSL Legal Team at the registered office; soft copy to be submitted to the designated CDSL email ID.
Multi-Level Complaint Resolution For the multi-level complaint resolution mechanism available at the Depositories, refer to the Depository Complaint Resolution process.

7. Guidance – Termination of the Depository Participant

S. No Type of Special Circumstances Timelines for the Activity / Service
1
  • Depositories to terminate participation when a participant no longer meets the eligibility criteria and/or other grounds as per bye laws (e.g., suspension by Stock Exchanges).
  • 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 within 30 days from the date of intimation by way of letter/email.

8. Dos and Don'ts for Investors

For Do’s and Don’ts please refer to the link Dos and Don’ts for Investor.

9. Rights of Investors

For rights, please refer to the link Rights of investors.

10. Responsibilities of Investors

For responsibilities, please refer to the link Responsibilities of Investors.

11. Grievance Details of DP

For Grievance details of DP, Click here.

12. Code of Conduct for Depositories

(Part D of Third Schedule of SEBI (D & P) Regulations, 2018)

For Code of Conduct for Depositories, View.

13. Code of Conduct for Participants

For Code of Conduct for Participants, View.

Need Help?

For any queries related to your demat account or investor rights, reach out to us or escalate through official channels.

SEBI SCORES: scores.sebi.gov.in

SMARTODR: smartodr.in

CDSL Grievances: cdslindia.com