The number of demat accounts held with National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) has crossed 1 crore, accounting for more than 80% of securities held and settled in dematerialised form in India.
The total value of securities held in these accounts is Rs 45 lakh crore as per the current market prices. On the other hand, Central Depository Services India Ltd (CDSL) has a total of 58.74 lakh investor accounts holding securities worth Rs 7.13 lakh crore as on August 17, 2009, according to its website.
In the last two years, when the domestic equity market was impacted by the global slowdown, NSDL managed to add 40 lakh new demat accounts. ?We have been able to achieve this feat primarily because of three factors – our technology, the trust investors have in us and our wide presence across the country,? said Gagan Rai, managing director, NSDL.
Currently the account holders are serviced by 281 depository participants through more than 9,600 service centres across 1,000 cities and towns in the country.
With a number of public issues expected from the government as part of its disinvestment programmes and IPO market coming back in to the limelight, NSDL is expecting more number of new account openings in the coming year.
?Based on our past experience, if similar trends continue, NSDL is expected to add 20 lakh new demat accounts in the current financial year,? said Rai. As volumes grow, we would further reduce the transaction cost to the benefit of common investors, he added.
In the last 13 years, NSDL has reduced the cost of transaction by over seven times, from Rs 700 for a transaction valuing Rs 10 lakh to Rs 5, irrespective of the value of the transaction.
Deven Choksey, managing director, KR Choksey Securities, said, ?Overall there has been more participation from new investors in recent times helping NSDL to add new account holders. And new public offers which are coming in would induce more number of investors to open fresh demat accounts.?
Beyond the successful implementation of the depository system, NSDL has also diversified into other areas. NSDL has set up and is managing the tax information network on behalf of the Income Tax Department besides acting as a central record-keeping agency for the New Pension System of the government of India.