accpunt holders

In case of a minor mismatch in the signature of the securities holder as available in the folio of the RTA and the present signature, Sebi said the timeline to process the service request will commence after the notice period of 15 days.

Capital markets regulator Sebi on Tuesday issued clarifications on guidelines about processing investors’ service requests by Registrars to an Issue and Share Transfer Agents (RTAs) and norms for furnishing PAN, KYC details, and nomination. This comes after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) received representations from the Registrars Association of India. ”From January 1, 2022, the RTAs shall not process any service requests or complaints received from the holder(s) / claimant(s), till PAN, KYC and nomination documents/details are received,” Sebi said in a circular. About nominations by holders of physical securities, Sebi said the nomination form will be sent out to the security holder accounts in two phases. In the first phase, such a form will be available for single account holders from January 1 onwards and joint account holders from April 1 onwards. The RTA will make available the soft copy of the form on its website. In case of a minor mismatch in the signature of the securities holder as available in the folio of the RTA and the present signature, Sebi said the timeline to process the service request will commence after the notice period of 15 days. If the letter sent by the RTA returns undelivered, it will advise the investor to obtain the signature verification by the banker to process the request. In case of an objection, the RTA, after removing the objection, will advise the investor to furnish signature verification by the banker along with any of the documents — Aadhaar, valid passport driving license, PAN card — among others.

Concerning major mismatch in the signature or if the signature card is not available, Sebi said the holder or claimant will have to furnish an original canceled cheque with the name of the security holder printed on it or bank passbook or bank statement attested by the bank and banker’s attestation of the signature. In case of a mismatch in name, Sebi said the driving license in smart card form or a copy of the digital form will be accepted. ”For all service requests, except transmission, copies of documents that are submitted in hard copy shall be processed by the RTA if the same is self-attested by the holder(s). RTA shall not insist on affidavits or attestation/notarization of documents,” Sebi said. On KYC details across all folios of the holder, maintained by the RTA, the regulator said that RTA will update the folios of the holder with the information on present address, bank details, e-mail ID, and mobile number from the details available in the Client Master List (CML) if the holder or claimant provides the CML.

Further, details that are already available with the RTA are to be overwritten on the specific request received from the investor. In the normal course, only details that are not available for the physical folio in the RTA database will be updated from the Demat account details. Sebi further said securities in frozen folios will be eligible for any payment including dividend, interest, or redemption payment only through electronic mode. Listed companies will have to ensure that intimation is sent to the holder that such payment is due and shall be made electronically upon complying with certain requirements. RTAs will have to provide a certificate of compliance from a practicing company secretary within 90 days from January 1 certifying the changes carried out, systems put in place to comply with the framework. Earlier, the timeline was 45 days.

PTI