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Question: I opened a demat and a bank account with ICICI when I started my career. I had purchased a couple of shares also in that demat account, but due to multiple relocations and job changes I could not keep track of my demat account and I also closed my bank account as it was an old salary account. Recently, when I checked my demat account statement, I found that shares have been transferred to IEPF. I am not sure how shares lying in my demat account can be transferred to IEPF. Further, how these shares can be claimed back?
Answer: Since you had opened the demat and bank account long ago, you would not have updated the KYC (Know Your Customer) documents in these accounts. Further, since you had closed your bank account which was linked to your demat account, hence no dividend payout from the company could get credited to your bank account as you had already closed the linked bank account.
As per the IEPF (Investor Education and Protection Fund) regulations, if the dividend remains unclaimed for 7 years or more, the shares pertaining to that dividend will be transferred to IEPF. Hence your shares would have been transferred to IEPF.
Now to claim those shares back into your demat account, you will have to write to those companies with your KYC documents, Signature verification from bank and your Demat Transaction Statement reflecting the transfer of shares to IEPF. Then, after due verification, companies would issue you an Entitlement Letter and then you can file an IEPF claim online and submit the documents to respective companies. IEPF claim is being handled by the government only.
After companies verify your claim, the process will move to IEPF authority and once they approve your claim, shares will be credited back to your demat account by IEPF authority.
Vikash Jain is co-founder at Share Samadhan Limited. Queries and views at mintmoney@livemint.com
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