Demat accounts to surpass combined population of Europe, Americas by 2047: NSDL
Sameer Patil highlights DMAT 2.0 launch at Global Fintech Festival, describes it as tokenisation of corporate bonds backed by Central Bank Digital Currency
As of 2026, India's depository ecosystem has seen its investor base expand from 5 crore in 2020 to over 23 crore, according to Sameer Patil, Chief Business Officer of NSDL. This growth, attributed to advancements in technology, has expanded capital market participation beyond metropolitan cities to tier-1, tier-2, and tier-3 towns.
NSDL, which currently safeguards assets worth more than ₹550 lakh crore, operates through over 57,000 service centers covering 99.9 percent of India's postal codes and hosts over 120,000 issuers on its platform. Established under the Depositories Act in 1996, the depository sector in India has transformed from the physical settlement of securities, fraught with risks of fraud and duplication, to dematerialization, a process driven by trust, technology, and reach according to Patil.
Recently, NSDL launched DMAT 2.0 at the Global Fintech Festival, a tokenization of corporate bonds backed by Central Bank Digital Currency, a joint initiative of SEBI and RBI. India's capital market history traces back to 1875, with regulatory support from SEBI playing a crucial role in attracting both domestic and foreign investors.
Looking to the future, Patil anticipates that by 2047, the number of demat accounts in India could surpass the combined population of the Americas and Europe, marking an unprecedented surge in investors within the capital markets.
Written by urgent.news from Hindu BusinessLine's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
