Multiple demat accounts held against single PAN surge 500% since FY17

Unique accounts now below 60% of total

The number of people holding multiple dematerialised (demat) accounts linked to a single income tax personal account number (PAN) has risen by 504 per cent since 2016-17 (FY17). 

According to data compiled from a study published in the January 2025 Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) bulletin, there were 6.18 million unique PANs with two or more demat accounts in FY17, a number that has since reached 37.3 million as of 2023-24 (FY24). This growth has outpaced the total number of demat accounts, which has increased by 444 per cent to 151.4 million over the same period. 

The number of individuals holding more than three demat accounts per PAN rose to 7.9 million in FY24 — more than 10 times the 700,000 recorded in FY17. Since FY17, the number of those holding three accounts against a single PAN has increased 6.9x, while the number of dual account holders has risen more than 4.9x over the same period. 

“An interesting observation from the analysis is the increasingly higher growth in total demat accounts compared to the growth in unique individual demat accounts, indicating the presence of multiple demat accounts against a single PAN. Further, of the demat accounts held by individuals, only 59.4 per cent are unique accounts based on PAN as of the end of March 2024,” said the study, titled Growth of Individual Investors in the Indian Securities Market, authored by Kalyani H, Shyni Sunil, and Prabhas Kumar Rath. 

 

The share of unique demat accounts as a proportion of total demat accounts dropped to 59.2 per cent in FY24 from 79.9 per cent in FY17. According to the study, the total number of unique individual investor accounts stood at 89.6 million as of March 2024.  Based on updated numbers in the Economic Survey 2024-25, released on January 31, this figure reached 115 million as of December 2024. 

Many clients open multiple investor accounts to take advantage of portfolio management service (PMS) schemes offered by different providers, said investment adviser Jayant Vidwans. The PMS industry requires a separate demat account for each investment. 

The number of discretionary PMS clients has increased from 70,994 in March 2017 to 181,384 in line with the latest Sebi data for November 2024, and additions from similar products may have contributed to this rise. Documenting all such accounts for family reference can help streamline succession, Vidwans noted. 

“It is always advisable… they should have some documentation in place,” he said. 

“Family members are sometimes not even aware of all the assets,” agreed Suresh Sadagopan, founder of Ladder7 Financial Advisories. While stricter nomination rules have helped reduce the risk of stranded assets, he advises clients to keep their holdings as simple as possible. Investors also split assets between accounts to prevent any single provider from having full visibility into their financial portfolio, Sadagopan added. 

Differing service levels among brokerages can also be a reason for multiple accounts, said the managing director of an old-school Dalal Street brokerage. The person said that some newer brokerages may not offer extensive research, data support, and other services, leading investors to use additional brokerages that provide these features — though often at different price points than discount brokerages. 

There were 130,000 unique PANs with more than five demat accounts as of FY17, according to the study. This number has since risen to 2.15 million as of FY24.