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Vishwanath (Sr. Associate)     02 August 2024

Stock broker ignored closure request, charged demat account maintenance fees for 5 years

In 2019, I requested ICICI Securities to close my Demat account. A few days later, I received an email stating my trading account was closed, but there was no mention of the Demat account status. Assuming the account was closed, I forgot about it.

Recently, in April 2024, an ICICI executive informed me that my Demat account was still active. Upon checking my bank statements, I realized I had been charged ₹826/year since 2019.

I registered a complaint on the SEBI Scores portal. Initially, ICICI Securities responded by saying my trading account was closed, not the Demat account, and that the Demat account was closed in April 2024, making the charges legitimate. I appealed, and ICICI Securities replied to the SEBI Scores portal, stating:

"This has reference to the complaint dated 09-05-2024 and 13-05-2024 of Complainant pertaining to the closure of the account for UCC: XXXX. As per our records, we would like to state that:

  1. The complainant's trading and Demat accounts were permanently closed on 21-JAN-19, with no funds/securities in these accounts.
  2. For bank account-related concerns, please contact the bank.

Yours faithfully, ICICI Securities Limited."

Despite this, they maintain that the account was closed in April 2024, not January 2019, and have wrongly charged me since 2019. They failed to inform me that while my trading account was closed, my Demat account remained active, which I believe was done to charge me unnecessarily.

Kindly suggest how and where I should complain to get my refund back.



Learning

 3 Replies

T. Kalaiselvan, Advocate (Advocate)     02 August 2024

The ICICI secfurities have clearly replied to the SEBI that it is a bank related issue hence you have to approach bank for deducting the chatrges witout any authorisation. 

The securities have cleverly escaped from the liability by passing on the baby to a different entity.

You can drag both the entities to consumer redressal commission seeking compensation for deficiency in service, unfair trade practice and for mental agony thay caused. 

1 Like

P. Venu (Advocate)     03 August 2024

If a bank related issue, the issue could be taken up with the Banking Ombudsman.

Vishwanath (Sr. Associate)     26 August 2024

@T. Kalaiselvan Sir, now ICICI Bank is saying the reply is by ICICI Securities and not by the Bank, we have not received any request for the closure earlier and account was closed in April 2024. Kindly advise where to file complaint. Thanks in advance. regards, Vishwanath


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