Operating Instructions

This one is not written up yet

The definition above is the short version. A full explanation — how it works, a worked example and the exam traps — is still being written. In the meantime the chapter below covers it in context.

Written up from the same chapter

• Beneficial ownerThe investor who owns dematerialised securities for every practical purpose — the depository is the registered owner on the company's books, but the dividends, bonus, rights and votes are the investor's.
• Clearing corporationThe entity that steps between every buyer and seller in the derivatives segment by novation, becoming the counterparty to both sides and guaranteeing that the trade settles.
• DematerialisationConverting securities held as physical certificates into book-entry holdings: the certificates are defaced, mutilated and surrendered to the issuer, and an equivalent quantity is credited to the holder's demat account.
• DepositoryAn institution that holds investors' securities in electronic form and provides the services needed to transact in them — the securities equivalent of a bank holding money rather than cash.
• Depository participantThe SEBI-registered agent through whom an investor reaches a depository — NSDL and CDSL cannot open investor accounts themselves, so every demat account is opened and operated through a DP.
• FungibilityIn the depository, securities of the same class carry no distinctive or certificate numbers — every unit is identical to every other and interchangeable, so title is counted in numbers, not in serial numbers.