CAMS and Karvy

In today’s world, investments in Mutual Funds are increasing by leaps and bounds, given their propensity to yield high returns. With the increase in the number of investors, transactions in mutual fund companies are increasing. As a result, these companies are outsourcing their back-end processing transactions and record maintenance of investor data to companies known as Registrar and Transfer Agents (R&T Agents). These RTAs take care of the huge customer data and their sole responsibility is to maintain records of all such transactions carried out on behalf of the mutual fund companies.

Definition:- Registrar and Transfer Agents (RTAs) are institutions formed to register and maintain detailed records of investor’s transaction on behalf of Mutual Fund Houses and for their convenience.

Role of RTAs:- Mutual fund investors carry out numerous transactions, such as buying and selling of mutual funds, switching funds, redeeming mutual funds or updating personal information (e.g.,  contact details, email id). All these changes done by investors are carried out frequently and have to be accurately recorded. Every such action is a complete transaction in itself and can be burdensome for mutual fund companies. So, these mutual fund companies outsource the work related to such back-end transaction to RTAs who have expertise in maintaining such data on a professional basis.

RTA companies act as a single-window system to investors where all the work and transaction-related to mutual funds are carried out at the ease of the investor through various branch offices of RTAs.

The role of Registrar and Transfer Agents also extends to providing information to investors with servicing information related to Mutual Funds like sharing Maturity dates, Unit details, monthly performance of Mutual Funds and all other investor-friendly information to investors at one place.

Parties involved in a Mutual Fund Transaction and services provided by RTAs to each of them: – There are 3 parties involved in a mutual fund transaction- investor, distributor and mutual fund company. Registrar and Transfer Agent institutions provide 360-degree services to all the three stakeholders of this mutual fund transaction.

The following are ways a Registrar and Transfer Agent provides services to the stakeholders:

• Mutual Fund Companies
  • Reduction in cost
  • Reduction in the maintenance of huge data of investors
  • No need to open branch offices in cities where RTA offices are present.
  • Sending of consolidated account statements, consolidated transaction details, portfolio statements to the investor on behalf of mutual fund companies.
  • Providing one point of customer service to the customers of mutual fund companies.
• Distributors
  • Distributors are agents of mutual fund companies who sell products of mutual fund houses to the prospective investors.
  • RTAs help distributors to buy and sell mutual funds on behalf of their clients
  • RTAs help distributors to get a consolidated statement of sales done by them in any given month.
  • RTAs are responsible for providing sales material such as investor forms and other required handouts in their offices, they also send them online to the distributor if they demand it
• Investors
  • Detailed information related to new offers, NAV of funds, dividend distribution or maturity details etc.
  • Make servicing related forms and information easily available to the customers
  • Complete customer service to the investors by completing all their transactions
  • Providing them with consolidated statements periodically

In India, Computer Age Management Services (CAMS) and Karvy are leading Registrar and Transfer Agent companies who provide services to investors on behalf of mutual fund houses.

Computer Age Management Services

CAMS is a mutual fund transfer agency with headquarters in Chennai Tamil Nadu, India. It was incorporated in 1988 with three shareholders — NSE Strategic Investment Corporation (a subsidiary of NSE Ltd), HDFC Bank group and Acsys.

CAMS has a wide network across India with 300+ Customer Service Centers (CSCs). All these Customer Service Centers are linked to each other in real-time. CAMS is a leading RTA intermediary providing back-end services to Mutual Fund Companies, Private Equity and Venture Capital Fund Companies, KYC Registration Agencies (KRA)  and investors of all these companies.

This CSCs is one-stop-shop for all the financial or non-financial services related to mutual funds. Also, CAMS has introduced a web portal and mobile application for its investors and clients where they can process transactions on their own with no need to visit any customer service centre or contact a distributor.

Services provided by CAMS

Account Creation	Transaction Processing	Customer Service	Record Keeping	Regulatory
Form acceptance from the Investor Verification of forms and all accompanying documents Creation of Investor Account where all information would be readily available Scan and Archival of the Required Documents of Investor	Form acceptance of any or all transaction from the customer Verification of forms Transaction Processing Settling of Money Transaction (i.e. Pay in or Payout of Money through various Instruments either to the investor or to Mutual Fund House) Reconciliation with the bank regarding receipt of Money and giving confirmation to the customer Commission or Fees Payment to Intermediaries Reconciliation of all orders and deliverables	White Label Website where the customer has all the information of his transaction White Label Call Center Services Complete Customer Service Maintaining Customer Data	Maintaining customer data Maintaining Transaction data	Administration related to Prevention of Money Laundering Reporting of any Suspicious Transaction

Subsidiaries of CAMS:-

1. CAMS Repository Services Ltd (“CAMS Rep”): This subsidiary of CAMS Incorporated provides insurance repository services to investors. The company is licensed by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) to carry out such services as:
   1. E-Insurance Account Creation
   2. Policy Holder Services
   3. Account Maintenance
   4. Conversion of existing and new policies to E-Policies
2. CAMS KYC Registration Agency (KRA) (“CAMS KRA”): This is a subsidiary of CAMS Incorporated and provides backend process of non-financial transaction like KYC Registration, Alteration in KYC details of customers and data maintenance of all KYC records of investors. CAMS KRA is registered under SEBI. The data maintenance team maintains and manages all the KYC data in real-time and this data maintenance is done at one data centre as this would help in avoiding duplication of KYC data of the investor.
   1. CAMS KRA provides certain online services for their customers
      1. Customer KYC creation
      2. Customer KYC Update
      3. KYC Form
      4. Once a customer has created KYC or updated changes in KYC they can access the status of the update any time.
   2. CAMS KRA provides certain online services for their associates and intermediaries
      1. PAN Update
      2. PAN verification
      3. Upload, Scan and Enter New KYC Data
      4. Maintenance of KRA Data
      5. Intermediaries can update changes in KYC data of their clients on behalf of the customer and if the customer himself has made any changes in the KYC the intermediaries can access those easily.

KARVY

The Karvy Group is a diversified conglomerate formed in 1983 at Hyderabad, India. Karvy is India’s largest Registrar and Transfer Agent with a client base of nearly 500 blue-chip companies, managing over 70 billion accounts.

The Karvy Group offers diverse services like stock broking, registrar and transfer agent, depository participant, distribution of financial products, wealth management, personal financial advisory services, market research etc.

Karvy is a premier integrated financial services provider. It is a member of three stock exchange companies namely:-

• National stock exchange
• Bombay stock exchange
• Hyderabad stock exchange

Karvy has been a customer-centric services company since its inception. It offers a single-window platform and caters to all the financial needs of its customers. Its customers include both corporate and retail customers.

Subsidiaries of Karvy:

Karvy is a diversified conglomerate and its wings are spread across various financial segments as it undertakes a lot of diversified work under its flagship.

Following is the list of various subsidiaries of Karvy: –

1. Karvy Stock Broking Ltd: deals with Registrar and Transfer Agent for financial products like Mutual Fund, FD and Bonds, Depository Participant, Wealth Management Services.
2. Karvy Computershare Private Ltd: Registrar and Share Transfer Agent
3. Karvy Computershare WLL: This wing is a registered administrator and agent for custody and registration of securities.
4. Karvy Comtrade Ltd: – deals in commodities broking and services related to it.
5. Karvy Capital Ltd: provides services related to portfolio management.
6. Karvy Investment Advisory Services Ltd: provides with investment advisory services
7. Karvy Holding Ltd: provides services in core investment in companies
8. Karvy Financial Services ltd: this wing provides with non-banking financial services
9. Karvy Insurance Repository ltd: Service provided are of Insurance Repository
10. Karvy Data Management Services Ltd: This wing of Karvy Provides with Data Management services. It manages data of all the investors across all its companies.
11. Karvy Middle East LLC: Provides wealth management services to NRI’s
12. Karvy Realty (India) Ltd: Provides Realty services to customers.
13. Karvy Forex and Currencies Pvt Ltd: Provides with Currency and Forex Services.
14. Karvy Investor Services Ltd: Provides with Merchant Banking and Corporate Financing options
15. Karvy Consultants Ltd: Consultant and advisory wing looking after publications
16. Karvy Insight Ltd: Services provided in Market Research to its clients
17. Karvy Analytics Ltd: Services provided in Analytics.
18. Karvy Solar Power Ltd: This wing is into the generation of clean solar energy
19. Karvy Global Services Ltd: this is white label BPO
20. Karvy Global Services Inc, USA: Provides BPO Services
21. Karvy Inc, USA: Provides Institutional Broking

New Trends with Registrar and Transfer Agents: – Keeping pace with the global competition Indian Markets are also opening up to digitization and finding the option to make themselves available to the customer 24*7 on their fingertips with Mobile Application and Online Web Space proving to be the best options for the companies.

CAMS and Karvy being leading Registrar and Transfer Agents in India both of them have their focus primarily on their customers. Both companies have always focused on customer service and customer satisfaction to the fullest. And both the companies have taken ahead of a step ahead in that direction by venturing into creating an online portal and Mobile Application for their customers who want to be constantly updated about the market and their investments.

CAMS and Karvy both have Online Portal and Mobile App whose main focus is on providing services to its clients on click of a button. Let us look into the features that both the companies are providing to its customers through these technological advancements.

	CAMS	Karvy
Web Portal	Yes	Yes
Web Address	https://www.camsonline.com/mycams.aspx	https://karvyonline.com/
Mobile App	Yes	Yes
Name of Mobile App	MyCams	KarvyOnline Trade
Mobile operating systems	Google Play, Apple App Store	Google Play, Apple App Store and Windows Phone

Features of MyCams :

• One time Registration on the MyCams App and Mycams Desktop version.
• Interoperability on both desktop and mobile versions i.e. if you register on the website the same user id (investor email id) and password can be used to log in from the mobile.
• The investor can manage his investment account he can host a number of transactions like viewing of Portfolio Valuation Statements, SIP Status, Changes in Dividend payment options etc
• The investor can transact from myCams like Purchase, Redemption, Switch and view of all the transactions done in relation to investments done by him.
• The investor can view all the statements related to the investments done by him i.e. all the consolidated Account Statements for all CAMS handled funds.
• The investor can download all the service-related forms from myCams.
• The one-stop platform whereby just entering PAN card number the investor can know all the investments related to the designated PAN No.
• 24*7 customer service and chat with an expert available

Features of KarvyOnline Trade:

• Easy Accessibility across desktop and Mobile App with a single registration using Email Id and Password.
• Advanced charts related to the performance of investor portfolio available.
• Tracking of investor portfolio
• Secure fund transfer
• Market Watch
• Online Trading i.e. buying and selling of securities, cancel and modify orders on BSE and NSE while on the go
• Instant access to current investment holdings and application status
• Chat with expert and knowledge of the industry trend

Thus CAMS and Karvy are making investment simpler and utmost easier for their investors by giving 24*7 accesses to its investors by proving user-friendly Mobile Application and Online Web Services where the investor can log in anytime anywhere and make an investment or view his investment on a go.