Registrar and Share Transfer Agent: Functions and Importance

An ample number of investors are engaged in mutual funds and it is very important for a mutual fund house to upkeep an updated record of transactions made by investors. Registrar & Share Transfer Agent (R&T agent) is a third party or body that manages and preserves these records of investors for the mutual fund house on their behalf. In India, the two most leading R &T agents are — Karvy and Computer Age Management Services (Cams). Some MFs have their in-house R&T agents. For example Franklin Templeton MF.

Functions of An R & T Agent

A SAG RTA Registrar and Share Transfer Agent are a third-party which acts on behalf of a fund house and plays a pivotal role. An R&T agent has a broad network via which it caters investors in multiple ways with their transactions. The functions of an R&T agent includes:

• RTA agent is an all-inclusive solution for all the fund houses activities.

R&T agent is an all-inclusive solution. It helps the investors in many ways like for acquiring the forms of different fund houses, doing the transaction with the fund houses and providing the accounts statements. Managing the activities related to different fund houses becomes a baffling and troublesome task without third party services.

• A Registrar and Transfer Agent is a one-window system for all technology-based services

An R&T agent caters technology-based services. R&T agent helps investors with the online transaction and provides different account statement services.

• An R&T agent is a one-stop place for all information

An R&T agent plays the role of a one-stop place for information as it provides details regarding different corporate operations and actions to the investors. Information such as new fund offers, maturity dates of investment and dividend distributions are easily available with an R&T agent. However, the fund houses also have this information available with them but an R&T Agent gives one-stop access for all the information about multiple investments into various schemes of different fund houses to the investors at a single station.

Importance of a Registrar & Transfer Agent

An R&T agent helps MF investors in form submission which is very important particularly for the investors who tend to invest in multiple MFs. According to the rules of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), an investment should be made by the cut-off time for the particular day. So, here a registrar transfer agent helps an investor make different investments at a single point and eliminate the need to rush to various fund houses for the submission of applications.

Further, an R&T agent assists MFs to abbreviate the costs. As R&T agents are present throughout the country, they have multiple branches for their affiliated MFs and these branches are referred to as point-of-sale terminals.