India’s Demat accounts cross 100-Mn mark

The country’s demat accounts topped the 100 million-mark for the first time in August. India’s demat account tally was 40.9 million in March 2020 just before the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

According to data released by (National Securities Depository Limited NSDL) and Central Depository Services (CDSL), over 2.2 million new accounts were opened last month, taking the cumulative figure to 100.5 million.

The growth is accredited to the sharp rise in the market, greater lean hours due to the lockdown and mobility restrictions, shift to the work-from-home set-up, ease of account opening, increase in mobile and data penetration, and a decline in brokerage rates.

In terms of number of accounts, CDSL has a higher market share but NDSL is bigger when it comes to assets under custody (AUC). At the end of August, CDSL operated 71.6 million demat accounts with an AUC of Rs 38.5 trillion. On the other hand, NSDL had 28.9 million accounts with AUC of Rs 320 trillion.

Nehal Vora, MD & CEO, CDSL, said, “The milestone of 100 million demat accounts is a testament to the acceptance of demat accounts and the securities market as an investment avenue against the backdrop of growth in household savings.”

Prashant Vagal, Executive Vice-President, NSDL, said, “We witnessed a substantial increase in demat accounts in the past two years. It is equally important to note that NSDL’s custody value increased from Rs 174 trillion in April 2020 to Rs 320 trillion ($4 trillion) in August 2022. This indicates participation from both retail and institutional investors.”