Investors in India can now use DigiLocker to access their financial holdings more easily, thanks to a new move by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
The idea is simple: if you’ve got demat holdings, mutual fund investments, or a consolidated account statement (CAS), you can now fetch and store them securely in your DigiLocker account.
This step is expected to make it easier for people to keep track of investments and, more importantly, find them when needed.
DigiLocker already lets users store important documents like bank statements, insurance policies, and National Pension System (NPS) records. Now, investors can also view and save their demat account details, shares, mutual fund holdings, and CAS, all in one place.
No need to dig through piles of paper or hunt down old emails when you need to check your investments.
One of the standout parts of this initiative is the nomination facility. Users can now appoint someone called a Data Access Nominee. In the event of the investor’s death, this nominee will be given read-only access to the DigiLocker account.
This is meant to help legal heirs quickly find financial records without running from pillar to post.
Here’s how the system is expected to work: if an investor passes away, KYC Registration Agencies (KRAs) – which are authorised by Sebi – will inform DigiLocker. DigiLocker will then notify the Data Access Nominees, who can start the process of claiming the assets with the concerned financial institutions.
The process isn’t fully automatic end-to-end, but it should cut down the paperwork and delays people often face.
KRAs are essentially the middlemen here, making sure the information flows smoothly. They’re responsible for verifying the investor’s details and alerting DigiLocker if an investor dies. That alert will then trigger the nominee notification.
It’s still early days, but this setup could make things easier for families trying to access unclaimed or forgotten financial assets.
Sebi has told asset management companies (AMCs), depositories, and registrar and transfer agents (RTAs) to register with DigiLocker.
This will allow investors to fetch and store their financial records from these institutions via DigiLocker. KRAs, on their part, will be expected to share updates about investor deaths with DigiLocker too.
