ICICI Securities has launched Insta Account facility which enables KYC compliant investors to invest in mutual funds without submitting any physical documents. This facility is available on the ICICIdirect website.
This facility is available for distributors who are empanelled with ICICI Direct. Currently around 3,600 IFAs are empanelled with ICICIdirect. Similar to other sub-broker platforms, ICICIdirect shares a certain percentage of commissions with IFAs. Vineet Arora, EVP, ICICI Securities says that all transactions executed by clients are tagged to distributors ARN code.
“With an ICICIdirect Insta Account, we have done away with the traditional way of investing with physical documents. Investors who are already KYC complaint would be able to use any of the banks approved by us to make an investment and utilize the in-depth mutual fund research reports, said Vineet Arora, EVP, ICICI Securities.
Distributor’s clients can use this facility by opening an account by providing details like PAN and date of birth and the system will pull client details from the KYC Registration Agency (KRA). In the second step, users have to verify their details by generating a one-time password (OTP) which is sent to their mobile or email id. After this, users have to provide details like occupation, income and generate user id and password. Clients who have ICICI Bank account can start investing directly while those who have other bank accounts need to upload a photo or scanned cheque on the system. Users can start investing in mutual funds once their bank authorizes the mandate.
Apart from its empanelled distributors, investors can also directly access the platform.
Investors can access research reports, capital gains statements, dividend income information and a host of other features on this account.
ICICIdirect has adopted National Automated Clearing House system (NACH) which was started by National Payments Corporation India (NPCI) for registering investment mandates on this account. This facility helps cut down the time to register investment mandates with banks. NACH is an online end-to-end electronic system which helps fund houses register SIP mandates swiftly.
One of the unique features of this account is that the system alerts investors if they don’t have sufficient balance in their bank accounts on the SIP date. “Investors get a SMS in the morning and they can deposit funds till 11 am after which the SIP amount is debited from the account. This ensures that investors don’t miss out on investing,” adds Vineet. Also, Vineet says that investors can pause or terminate SIPs anytime.
ICICIdirect manages assets under advisory of Rs. 16,000 crore in mutual funds.
Recently, DSP BlackRock also launched a platform called IFAXpress for IFAs which allows KYC complaint clients to invest in DSPBR funds without any paperwork.
