The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has released the Investor Charter to protect the interests of investors in the Indian securities market.
While stating that investors have the right to fair and equitable treatment, to expect timely redress of grievances, and to receive quality services from SEBI-recognised market infrastructure institutions and intermediaries, the Investor Charter has also outlined the following dos and don’ts:
Dos for investors:
- Read and understand documents carefully before investing.
- Know about investor grievance-redressal mechanism.
- Know the risks involved before investing.
- Keep track of account statements and bring to notice of concerned stock exchange/ intermediary/ AMC any discrepancy.
- Know about various fees, charges, margins, and premiums involved in the transactions.
- Preserve relevant transaction-related documents.
Don’ts for investors:
- Don’t make payments in cash while making any investment in the securities market, beyond the prescribed limit.
- Don’t share critical information such as account details, login ids, DIS and passwords with anyone.
In order to have a cost-effective and timely dispute resolution, SEBI has put in place an alternative dispute redressal mechanism for grievances against brokers, depository participants at the level of stock exchanges and depositaries. SEBI is examining the prospect of establishing similar mechanisms for various services provided by other registered intermediaries/entities, the regulator stated.
