Investor Service Centre
Also written ISC · Investor Service Centre (ISC)
A stock exchange office, required by SEBI, that offers investors counselling, complaint filing, dispute-resolution help and facilities to attend online arbitration and grievance meetings.
In plain language
Not every investor is comfortable filing a complaint online or attending an arbitration hearing by video from home. An Investor Service Centre (ISC) is a physical place, run by a stock exchange, where investors can walk in for help.
SEBI first asked stock exchanges to open at least one ISC in 1997. ISCs provide counselling and a set of minimum facilities: newspapers and a library, a computer to reach SEBI's and the exchange's grievance portals, a desk to accept complaints, help with dispute resolution, and rooms with video-calling so investors can attend online arbitration or grievance meetings.
How it works
Where (Chapter 7, section 7.2.3)
- SEBI circular dated December 03, 1997: every stock exchange to open or maintain at least one ISC.
- ISCs in the metro cities: New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.
- Exchanges with nationwide terminals add ISCs in Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Kanpur, Indore, Bangalore, Pune, Jaipur, Ghaziabad, Lucknow, Gurgaon, Patna and Vadodara.
- More ISCs wherever required, or as SEBI specifies. An ISC can be run by one exchange or jointly by two or more.
Minimum facilities
| Facility | Workbook detail |
|---|---|
| Newspapers | Four financial dailies, at least one in the regional language |
| Computer | Dedicated desktop/laptop with internet, to access public information and SEBI/exchange grievance portals |
| Complaints | Received in physical and electronic form |
| Facilitation desk | To assist investors in dispute resolution |
| Arbitration | Arbitration and appellate arbitration facility, including video-calling for online arbitration or grievance meetings |
| Space | Meeting room for 5 to 6 persons plus sitting space for another 5 to 6 |
| Library | Relevant laws, booklets, educational material; physical copies of laws at minimal cost |
| Visitor register | For future correspondence |
| Other | Telephone, photocopier, printer, scanner, internet, furniture |
Staff. SEBI has directed exchanges to train ISC officials in market operations, grievance resolution and SCORES.
Under ODR (section 7.3.9). Investors may take part in online conciliation and arbitration using the facilities of ISCs operated by any MII.
A worked example
Names and amounts are illustrative; the rules are the workbook's.
Sunita lives in Patna and has a dispute with her broker over Rs 80,000. She has no laptop and has never filed an online complaint.
- She walks into the ISC in Patna, one of the cities where exchanges with nationwide terminals must have an ISC.
- The facilitation desk helps her lodge the complaint. The ISC accepts it in physical form.
- The broker's response does not satisfy her, and the matter reaches online conciliation through SMART ODR. She joins the conciliation meeting from the ISC's meeting room by video call.
- Conciliation fails. Her claim is Rs 1,00,000 or below, so a sole arbitrator runs a document-only arbitration (a hearing may still be granted for recorded reasons). If a hearing is held, she can again attend it from the ISC.
At no point does Sunita need her own computer or internet connection.
Why NISM asks about it
Chapter 7, section 7.2.3 (Investor Service Centres of Stock Exchanges) carries the 1997 circular, the list of cities, the minimum facilities and the staff-training direction. Section 7.3.9 links ISCs to online conciliation and arbitration under ODR. Questions are recall-based: the year of the circular, the metro cities, the number of newspapers and the size of the meeting room.
Common exam traps
- At least one ISC per exchange was the 1997 starting point; metros and a further list of cities came later.
- Four newspapers, at least one regional. Not two, not all regional.
- Meeting room for 5 to 6 persons, plus sitting space for 5 to 6 more.
- ISCs can be run jointly by two or more exchanges.
- Any MII's ISC can be used for ODR proceedings, not only the ISC of the exchange involved.
- Physical and electronic complaints are both accepted at ISCs.
Where this is taught
- Series V-A · Chapter 3: Legal Structure of Mutual Funds in Indiaintroduced here
- Series IV · Chapter 10: Code of Conduct and Investor Protection Measuresintroduced here
- Series II-B · Chapter 6: Basics of Registrars and Transfer Agentsintroduced here
- Series VII · Chapter 7: Investor Grievances and Arbitrationintroduced here
Related terms
- Investor CharterSEBI's published statement of what an investor is entitled to from an intermediary — the services, the rights, the dos and don'ts, and a table of activities with the timeline each one must be completed in.
- SCORESSEBI's centralised web-based system for processing investor complaints, on which the company or intermediary must upload an Action Taken Report and the investor can watch the status online.
- ArbitrationQuasi-judicial dispute resolution under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, run online by an ODR Institution once conciliation fails; the award binds unless challenged under Section 34.
- ConciliationThe first, consensual stage of SMART ODR: a sole independent conciliator appointed by an ODR Institution tries to settle an investor dispute within 21 days, and if it fails fixes the admissible claim value.
- Online Dispute ResolutionThe MII-administered process — pre-conciliation, conciliation, then arbitration — through which investor disputes with portfolio managers are resolved online via the SMART ODR portal.
- Official Point of AcceptanceA location a mutual fund has formally designated to receive transaction requests, where the application is time-stamped — and that stamp, not the moment the investor handed the form over, decides which NAV applies.
- ODR InstitutionAn independent institution empanelled by a market infrastructure institution to conduct time-bound online conciliation and arbitration of securities market disputes on the SMART ODR portal.