The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) wants to increase retail participation in the capital market and enhance the penetration level of the equity market across the country. In this endeavour, the capital market watchdog has called for a meeting with top office-bearers of broker associations to deliberate on ways to achieve it.
According to persons familiar with the development, the meeting will be attended by representatives of BSE Brokers’ Forum and the Association of National Exchanges Members — the two leading bodies representing the top brokerages of the country. Sebi chairman UK Sinha will also be present at the meeting.
“The meeting has been fixed for April 21 and the agenda includes discussing ways to increase retail participation and spreading the equity investment culture across the country,” said a top official of one of the broker bodies. He declined to be identified as discussions are yet to take place.
“Sebi has made it clear that only broad proposals for achieving the aim would be discussed and operational issues will be taken up separately later. The number of demat accounts has increased at a very slow pace over the years and that is a matter for concern for the regulator as well,” he added.
All individuals need a demat account to trade in the capital market. Brokerages help investors open such accounts with depositories like the National Securities Depository Ltd or the Central Depository Services (India) Ltd.
Data with the depositories show that the total number of demat accounts was pegged at 2.54 crore as on March 31. While NSDL manages 1.46 crore demat accounts, CDSL has 1.08 crore accounts under its belt.
