Date:31/08/2007 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/08/31/stories/2007083152351500.htm

Back NSDL plans share transfer updates through SMS

Our Bureau

Kolkata, Aug. 30

Your banker uses it to tell you about funds coming into your savings account, your telecom service provider updates you about bills and now your depository participant (DP) will inform you about debits into your demat account. If you have not deduced it already, getting to know the latest transfer details will become easier for investors, thanks to National Securities Depository Ltd’s plan to introduce SMS-ed updates.

The depository, which intends to alert investors on transfers that take place in demat accounts, will do so a day after the debit. These will be sent to account holders who furnish cell-phone numbers to their DPs.

Alerts will be sent out if the debits are up to five ISINs (international securities identification numbers) a day.

The chief advantages, as NSDL sees it, are: Investors will not have to wait for transaction statements from their DPs to be sanguine about these debits. The depository has said it will not impose any charge on the DPs for offering the facility.

The updates will not be made available to those who have registered mobile numbers originating outside India.

The DPs concerned need to record the numbers in their systems. Incidentally, NSDL has clarified that the “alerts are dependent on various factors, including connectivity”.

Further, the investor concerned will have to be “responsible for the security and confidentiality” of the phone number to be used for the facility.

The investor will have to accept that “timeliness, accuracy and readability” of the alerts will depend on issues affecting the service provider.