SCORE-Sebi Complaints Redress System

Introduction

Nowadays the words SAVING, INVESTMENT, SHARE and TRADING have become popular in India. People are diverting their surplus money towards new financial products such as mutual funds, shares, company fixed deposits and insurance products. So these financial products and markets play an important role towards the growth and economy of our country. On the other side, conflicts of investor interests are increasing when investors enter into a new world of financial markets.

With the objective of development of financial sector and to protect investor’s interest Securities Exchange Board of India (Regulatory Body) popularly called as SEBI has introduced various initiatives. One of the popular initiative is that of investor education.

What is SEBI (Securities Exchange Board of India)

The Securities and Exchange Board of India is the regulator body for the securities market in India (Like RBI for banking industry). It was established in the year 1988 and given statutory powers on April 12 1992 through the SEBI Act, 1992.

What is SCORE (SEBI Complaints Redress System)

SCORES is a web based centralized grievance redress system of SEBI (https://scores.gov.in). SCORES enables investors to lodge and follow up their complaints and track the status of redressal of such complaints online from the above website from anywhere. This enables the market intermediaries and listed companies to receive the complaints online from investors, redress such complaints and report redressal online. All the activities starting from lodging of a complaint till its closure by SEBI would be online in an automated environment and the complainant can view the status of his complaint online. An investor, who is not familiar with SCORES or does not have access to SCORES, can lodge complaints in physical form at any of the offices of SEBI. Such complaints would be scanned and also uploaded in SCORES for processing.

What types of complaints can be registered in SCORE portal?

Entities against which complaints are handled by SEBI include:

• Listed companies / registrar & transfer agents
• Brokers / stock exchanges
• Depository participants / depository
• Mutual funds
• Portfolio Managers
• Other entities (KYC Collective investment scheme, Merchant banker, Credit rating, Foreign institutional investor etc)

What types of complaints cannot be registered in SCORE portal?

Bank deposits and banking; fixed deposits with nonbanking financial companies (NBFCs) and other matters pertaining to NBFCs. - RESERVE BANK OF INDIA (RBI)

• Fixed deposits with manufacturing companies; unlisted companies; mismanagement of companies, financial performance of the company, annual general meeting, annual report, minority shareholders' interest, non-receipt of preferential allotment shares; corporate actions as per the court order, such as mergers, amalgamation, reduction of share capital/par value, etc. - MINISTRY OF CORPORATE AFFAIRS
• Insurance companies / brokers / agents / products and services. - INSURANCE REGULATORY AND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY ( IRDA)
• Commodities - FORWARD MARKETS COMMISSION
• Pension fund - PENSION FUND REGULATORY AND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY (PFRDA)
• Monopoly and anti-competitive practices - COMPETITION COMMISSION OF INDIA (CCI)
• Housing finance companies - NATIONAL HOUSING BANK

Note: Before raising a complaint in SCORE, the investor should first approach the concerned company/ intermediary against whom there is a complaint. If complaint is not addressed satisfactorily, then the user can register the complaint with SCORE.

Process to raise complaint in SCORE webpage

Step by step process to raise complaint in SCORE webpage

1. Visit scores.gov.in/Registration.aspx to register as new user. Here, user needs to give important personal information like name, e-mail, address, PAN no. etc. On successful registration, SCORE will send user id and password to registered e-mail id.
2. Go to login page https://scores.gov.in/in left side of webpage enter USERNAME and PASSWORD provided by SCORE, then click “SIGN IN”.
3. After successful login, in top left side user will get “COMPLAINT REGISTRATION”, “SEND REMINDER” & “VIEW COMPLAINT STATUS” option. Click on COMPLAINT REGISTRATION option to raise new complaint.
4. Then Complaint Registration Form will open, where user needs to fill up personal details like name, address, mobile no. etc.
5. In bottom part of Complaint Registration Form user should select category of complaints like Mutual fund, Depository participant listed companies, Broker etc.
6. Once user selects the category, web page will ask for other details like type of complaint, name of mutual fund Company, descriptions of complaints etc. User can also upload supporting document up to 1MB. Then click submit.
7. Then you will get complain registration number. (SMS and e-mail confirmation)
8. User needs to wait for 30 days for the response.

Track the status

Through registration number user can track the status and send reminders. Users can also call SEBI investor helpline (toll free number) 1800 266 7575 or 1800 22 7575

Source : https://www.sebi.gov.in/