The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has said that its move to introduce a basic demat account will benefit 60% of investors in the country.
?Our analysis shows that nearly 60% of all investors will benefit. Further, around 50% of demat account holders will have zero annual charges and the rest 10% will have very nominal charge,” said Sebi chairman UK Sinha, while inaugurating CAMSKRA ? the fourth KRA (KYC Registration Agency) in the country.
Sebi on Monday introduced the concept of ?Basic Services Demat Account? with substantially lower charges. The move is expected to benefit a large number of retail investors across the country.
Such basic accounts will have zero annual charges if the value of the securities held in the account is less than Rs.50,000.
Meanwhile, Sinha said that Sebi is in talks with other regulators like Irda, PFRDA and FMC to explore the possibility of using the KRA database in other sectors too.
?Sebi has initiated a dialogue with all other regulators regarding a common KYC. The government has set up a committee to look into this issue,? said Sinha.
The Sebi chairman said that the regulator is in talks with RBI to evaluate the use of credit cards for making investments in the secondary and primary markets. ?We are in serious discussions with RBI on this matter,” said Sinha.
