RTAs provide investors unique services online

BL Research Bureau

With professionals mostly working from home due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it has now become quite the routine to do one’s investing too, online, including in mutual funds.

One way to execute transactions online is your Registrar and Transfer Agent’s (RTA) website or mobile application. There are other services too that RTAs provide through their websites and mobile applications.

If you are an existing customer of a mutual fund, then it is easy to activate your online account with the RTA that services those mutual funds, using your Permanent Account Number and email address. Once you set up your online account with either KFintech (earlier Karvy) or CAMS (Computer Age Management Services), facilities for mutual funds become available online through the RTAs.

CAMS allows investors of the mutual funds it services to register one single bank debit mandate through its myCAMS portal. This can be done electronically through a CAMSPay eMandate to register a bank account mandate. Through this facility, all SIPs and lump sum investments in the 16 mutual funds serviced by CAMS can be processed using one bank mandate. This will help investors avoid registering multiple bank mandates across the funds they have invested in. As of now, only CAMS offers this electronic bank mandate service for the mutual funds it serves.

You have to first register your bank account, which will be linked to your Permanent Account Number or PAN. Do remember to set a high transaction limit so that you can take care of any future SIP investments. As your PAN will be common across mutual funds, this electronic bank mandate will apply across all the mutual fund folios where CAMS is the RTA.

SIP registration/pause

If you have an existing folio with a mutual fund that is serviced by KFintech or CAMS, you can set up a new systematic investment plan (SIP) directly through your respective KFintech or CAMS account. This way, you can avoid going individually to each mutual fund’s website to register SIPs. Even if you do not have an existing folio, you can register a new SIP through these portals.

KFintech has a facility to pause SIP transactions at one click. This will be helpful for investors who invest in multiple funds that are serviced by KFintech and avoid either cancelling or individually dealing with mutual funds to pause their SIPs. Both KFintech and CAMS also provide the facility to cancel your SIP through their portals for the mutual funds that they service.

ELSS statement

KFintech and CAMS allow investors of mutual funds that they service to download an ELSS statement for a specified period that gives details of your equity-linked savings investments. This is available under the statements tab on their websites once you log in. You will have to select the period, mutual funds that you want to include in the statement, and select a password to encrypt the PDF file that will be emailed to you. If you are an investor who likes to spread ELSS investments over multiple funds, this statement will give consolidated details of all such investments for mutual funds that KFintech/CAMS service. This will be useful for salaried individuals who have to submit investment proofs to their employer every year.

Form 15G/H submission

KFintech and CAMS allow investors to submit their Form 15G/H declaration online to the mutual funds they service. Form 15G/H is submitted by taxpayers who do not anticipate paying income taxes in a particular financial year. The declaration is relevant for investors who have invested in dividend plans of mutual funds. Once uploaded online for each mutual fund through the RTA, there is no need to individually file form 15G/H with each fund.