Your demat account is very similar to your bank account. It allows you to store securities such as shares, bonds, mutual fund units, and more in an electronic format. And considering the fact that your demat account holds all of your investments, it is crucial to keep a close track of the account and the balance contained therein.
This is especially true if you’re an individual who regularly buys and sells shares on the stock market. But then, how do you go about checking your demat account balance? This article can help you out with that. Continue reading to find out what your demat account balance is and how you can check it periodically.
Your demat account balance is basically an overview of the number and the value of shares and other securities that your account currently contains. And as you buy and sell securities on the stock market, your demat account balance either goes up or goes down.
As you’ve already seen above, a demat account is the stock market equivalent of a bank account. Just like how you safely and securely store your money in a bank account, you do the same with stocks and other securities in a demat account.
And similar to how you check your bank account balance by taking a look at your bank’s passbook or by logging into your netbanking account, you can do the same with your demat account as well.
Continuing on from the previous point, your demat account balance fluctuates constantly depending on the number of securities that you buy and sell. And so, it is extremely important for you to keep a track of your demat account balance to ensure that the account is debited and credited accordingly with each transaction, and with the right amount each time. This is especially true in the case of purchase of shares since they only get credited to your demat account within T+2 days.
Another major reason why you should check your demat account balance periodically is to ensure that there are no discrepancies, mistakes, or unauthorised transfers to or from your account. Typically, when you open a trading and demat account through a stock broker, you sign an agreement known as the Power of Attorney (POA). This agreement gives power to your stock broker to access your demat account and initiate transfers on your behalf as needed. In some very rare cases, stock brokers can end up misusing the POA that you sign to effect unauthorised share transfers without your knowledge.
But you need not worry about this, because the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) keeps a close eye on the industry and its participants. And by keeping track of your demat account balance, you too can swiftly identify discrepancies or unauthorised transfers, if any. This way, you would be in a much better position to bring this to the notice of the concerned authorities and have it rectified immediately.
Now that you’re aware of the importance of checking your demat account balance periodically, here’s how you can actually do it. Fortunately, there isn’t just one way to do this. You can make use of three different ways to check your demat account balance. The sections below elaborate these methods.
The depository with whom you have your demat account will send you regular statements via a physical letter, email, or both. This statement is what’s known as the demat account statement, and it consists of a host of important information regarding your demat account, including the current balance in your account. One look at this statement is all it takes for you to find out just what your demat account balance is.
While the first method is by far one of the easiest, it may not always give you the latest picture regarding your account balance consistently. This is because the depository only sends out demat account statements to you on a monthly or quarterly basis. So, if you wish to check your demat account balance at a point that’s between the issue dates of two subsequent statements, the first method may not be the way to go.
Instead, you can get all the information related to your demat account balance by simply logging into your trading account. Since your demat account is almost always linked with a trading account, you can simply log into your trading account using your user credentials to view what your current demat account balance is.
Alternatively, if you possess multiple demat accounts, the second option may not be very practical since you would have to log into each one of the linked trading accounts to get to know your balance. In that case, the above method may not be ideal.
What you can do instead is log directly into your demat account to check the balance. This is the best way to gain access to the Consolidated Account Statement (CAS). The CAS is essentially a single statement that contains key information related to all of the demat accounts that you hold with a depository. It not only helps you save time, but also gives you a much clearer picture of your demat account balances.
Here’s a quick look at the step-by-step processes that you would have to follow to check your demat account balance on both the depositories in India – the National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) and the Central Depository Services Limited (CDSL).
If your demat account is with CDSL, the process that you would have to follow is as elaborated below.
On the other hand, if your demat account is with NSDL, here’s what you would have to do to download your Consolidated Account Statement.
As you can clearly see, checking your demat account balance is extremely easy and the process takes only a few minutes to complete. Doing this simple exercise without fail on a periodic basis is extremely essential, because it can help you find discrepancies and mistakes on time, thereby putting you in a better position to have them rectified swiftly.
And if you don’t have a demat and trading account yet, you can simply visit TradeSmart Online to get started right away. The entire process is paperless and can be completed online within a few minutes. Click here to get started.
It is essentially an overview of the amount and number of securities that your demat account currently holds.
Yes. You can view the balances of all of your demat accounts in one place by logging into the CDSL or NSDL platform and viewing the Consolidated Account Statement (CAS).
Of course. You can still view your demat account balance by logging into your trading account or by viewing the demat account statement sent to you via a physical letter or email.
Since your shares will only be credited to your account by T+2 days, there may be a slight delay in how your demat account balance is reflected in your account.
If you find any errors or discrepancies in your demat account balance, make sure that you get in touch with your stock broker right away. And if they do not give you a satisfactory resolution, you can escalate the issue to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
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