Depository

An institution that holds securities in electronic form. India has two, and every dematerialised share sits in one of them.

Investors do not deal with a depository directly. They open an account through a participant, which is usually a broker or a bank, and the participant maintains the account on the depository's system.

The consolidated account statement issued by the depository is the independent record of holdings, separate from whatever a broker's application displays.

Reconcile the two occasionally. They are different systems.