The Securities Exchange Board of India is the regulatory body which monitors and regulates securities and commodity market in India. The SEBI has made it mandatory to link your Demat account and Aadhaar. Before we dive into the process and learn how to link your Aadhaar number with Demat account lets discuss a bit about your Demat account.

A Demat account or Dematerialized account facilitates a person to hold his shares or financial securities in the electronic form. This offers improved accessibility as your physical share certificates are converted to electronic form. The online procedure to open the Demat account is hassle-free and without any charges. However, you are required to pay a certain onetime amount as an annual maintenance charge. You can easily open your Demat account. All you need is to fill up is the required form and submit details of your PAN card and proof of address. In addition to these details, you also need to submit your bank account details. As mentioned earlier SEBI has made it mandatory to link your Aadhaar with the Demat account. Failing to do so can lead to deactivation of your Demat account.

How to know if the Aadhaar number is linked to your Demat Account?

• If you are not sure if your Aadhaar is linked to your Demat account you use below mentioned procedure to check the same
• Go to the UIDAI website: https://uidai.gov.in/Click on the ‘Check Aadhaar Linked account’ option
• In the required field input your 12 digit Aadhaar number
• You will receive an OTP on the mobile number linked to you Aadhaar
• Enter the generated OTP in the required field
• All the accounts linked to your Aadhaar number will be visible to you. This also includes your Demat account

Using the above procedure you will learn if the Demat is linked to your adhaar number or not. If the answer is no in the upcoming section we will tell you how to link your Aadhaar number with Demat account. Before jumping to the actual process let us understand the significance of linking your Aadhaar to your Demat account.

The SEBI has made it mandatory to link your Aadhaar with the Demat account. In order to avoid the deactivation of your Demat account it is necessary to link your 12-digit Aadhaar number to the Demat account. Also, linking Aadhaar saves you from the hassle of cumbersome documentation required for futures and options trading. To make this procedure less stressful the provision to link your Aadhaar with the Demat account through online mode is also available.

Now use the earlier mentioned procedure to check if the Aadhaar number is linked to your Demat Account and look for your Demat account in the list of linked accounts. If you didn’t find your Demat account in the list let us move ahead to know more about the procedure to link Aadhaar to Demat.

To link your account you will need the following documents handy before you start:

• Your Aadhaar card
• You should have all the information related to your Demat account like name and ID of Depository Participant and PAN details handy
• Access to your registered mobile number

Now you have the above required documents with you let us discuss how to link your Aadhaar number with Demat.

• Go to the NSDL website – Visit the https://nsdl.co.in/ and click “Click Here to Link Aadhaar Number to Demat Account” option on the home page of the NSDL portal
• Submit all the required details related to your Demat account such as Depository Participant, DP ID, your client ID, and PAN details
• Enter the generated OTP and Click on Proceed – After the above steps, you will receive an OTP on your registered mobile number. Once you enter the OTP received click on the option of ‘Proceed’
• Check all the entered Information and Proceed – After you click on ‘Proceed’ all the information related to your Demat account will be visible to you on the screen. Check the information presented to you to confirm the accuracy of the details. Once you check the information click on the ‘Proceed’ option
• Enter other details Date of Birth, Gender and Aadhaar number – After the above you will be required to enter the other details like your date of birth, gender and Aadhaar number. After you input these required details click on the ‘Proceed’ option to move ahead
• Submit Details to generate another OTP – After you have submitted all the required information you will receive a final OTP on your registered mobile number
• Submit OTP – The final step is to submit the generated OTP to verify all the details submitted so far

Once you link your Aadhaar card you can use the earlier steps again to know if the Aadhaar number is linked to your Demat Account.

Following are few the points that you should keep in mind while you link Aadhaar to Demat:

• To verify your identity this process uses your email ID and mobile number. So ensure that your mobile number and email ID are linked with the NSDL
• You should have access to your registered mobile number which is linked to your Aadhaar to authenticate the details using the OTP
• You should have your name and ID of the Depository Participant and PAN card details handy
• Please do not use public Wi-Fi or cyber cafes to perform this procedure. On public Wi-Fi, your account details could be compromised and are prone to phishing

Benefits of linking your Demat account and Aadhaar number:

• As you use your Aadhaar card to authenticate details you get quick eKYC approval
• Investors can instantly switch between different brokerage firms using their Aadhaar number
• Linking Aadhaar enables easy switching between brokerage firms which will eventually increase the competition between firms and will result in a drop in broking charges
• You can keep an eye on your investments regularly and increased transparency will prevent any fraudulent activities
• If you fail to link the Demat account and Aadhaar, your Demat accounts will be stated fake and can lead to deactivation of the same
• You can regularly monitor your Demat accounts with more security and transparency
• Reduction in the documentation for futures and options trading means hassle-free management of Demat accounts

We hope this information clears your doubts and concerns regarding how to link Aadhaar to Demat account online. So now when you open your Demat account link it with your Aadhaar, you can hold your securities easily and conveniently.