How to protect your interests when your stockbroker is headed for trouble

Delays in transferring securities from pool account to your demat account, or in paying out money to you are signs of potential trouble

Over the past couple of years, there have been a number of cases of brokers defaulting, or being investigated and fined by the market regulator. Allied Financials, Amrapali Aadya Trading & Investment, Kassa Finvest, Unicon, and F6 Finserve are some that have got into trouble, and landed their customers into difficulties as well. The latest case is that of a Kolkata-based broker named BMA Wealth Creators.

Misappropriation of clients’ securities likely: When a client buys shares, the broker has to transfer them to the former’s demat account. But sometimes the broker keeps the shares in his own pool account. This