SEBI Mandates DigiLocker Integration To Reduce Unclaimed Securities Assets

The market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, has mandated asset management companies, KYC registration agencies and registrars and transfer agents to unite their systems with the government's DigiLocker platform.

This is being done to deal with the issue of unclaimed assets and help nominees identify assets in case of the demise of investors. The mandate will come into force from April 1.

This integration will enable investors to securely fetch their mutual fund holding statements and demat account transaction statements directly into their DigiLocker accounts.

Specifically, investors can access their holding statements on the date immediately preceding the request or transaction statements for the last 30 days.

Additionally, they can retrieve the latest Consolidated Account Statement (CAS) generated or available in the previous 12 months. DigiLocker will also offer an option to automatically fetch the CAS on January 1 each year. Intermediaries may choose to provide additional information to investors through DigiLocker beyond these requirements.

Upon the investor's demise, DigiLocker will notify the nominee, who, after identity authentication, can access the deceased's DigiLocker account. If the DigiLocker nominee is also the nominee in the investor's account or folio, they can initiate the transmission of assets.

Otherwise, the nominee is expected to inform the surviving joint holder, account nominee, or legal heir, facilitating the initiation of the transmission process.