Investing
Demat account
Also known as: Dematerialised account
An electronic account that holds your shares, ETFs and bonds in digital form.
A demat account stores your stocks and other securities electronically, the way a bank account stores money.
You need one to buy and sell individual shares or ETFs. It is usually paired with a trading account.
Regular mutual funds don't strictly need a demat account, but ETFs and direct stock investing do.
For example
To buy shares of a company or a Nifty ETF, you first open a demat plus trading account with a broker like Zerodha or Groww.