icicidirect.com

Seamless service
ICICI Direct.com is probably the leader in India’s Internet-based trading segment. It has complete seamlessness as far the three intermediaries — banks, depositories and brokers — go. The trading platform is divided mainly into a trading centre, allocation of funds and demat view status, which allows easy buying and selling, order book and cash and security projection on the screen.

Other features like news, stock watch, technicals, market information, etc. make it a investor-friendly site.

ICICIDirect, commenced services on 17 Apr. 2000 and offers services in 35 cities. It is and remains the first to offer integrated services of banking, depository services and e-broking, all on-line right from day one seamlessly. All the settlements are paperless, ie, when the customer buys or sells, on the settlement date, it is electronically debited or credited and the customer need not sign any paper at all. ICICIDirect offers the highest level of security, ie, SSL with 128-bit encryption.

Says Anup Bagchi, chief operating officer, “We are going to launch margin trading soon.”

About practical problems faced by clients, Bagchi says, “Connectivity issues are basically a function of the telecom infrastructure. But we have parallel off - line trading arrangements. More dispersed services are bound to be affected by connectivity problems which is no exception even for most western countries.”

Bagchi says the market will gradually evolve into two segments where there will be self-directed traders and those who seek advice for making their investment decisions. The latter set will prefer to speak to the broker, get his advice and then trade through certain channels. So both have to co-exist, as is the case in almost all the mature markets. Net trading will pick up in India very fast.

As far as cyber laws are concerned, Bagchi says there needs to be clarity about the concept and enforcement of digital signatures, differing technologies and standardisation of these technologies for a seamless experience for the customer. For example, today, one has to physically sign a form before he can make a start. Improved telecom infrastructure and payment gateways across a wide network of different banks will make on-line trading more appealing to a wider market of investors/businesses.