What Is a Consolidated Account Statement (CAS)?

A consolidated account statement is the one document that shows what you hold across both sides of the Indian market: securities sitting in a demat account and mutual fund units sitting in folios, stitched together on a single PAN. It exists because those two records live in different systems, the depositories on one side and the asset management companies and their registrars on the other. SEBI made them share data so an investor sees one view rather than two.

How is a consolidated account statement put together?

The mechanics are a data exchange with a deadline on each leg. Asset management companies and mutual fund registrars share the required information with the depositories on a monthly basis. Specifically, they provide the data for common PANs within three days from the month end, and the depositories then consolidate and dispatch the CAS within ten days from the month end.

Matching is by PAN. The depositories compare their own PAN database against the PANs supplied by the AMCs and registrars, determine the common PANs, and allocate those PANs between themselves so each investor gets one statement rather than two. Where a PAN has mutual fund units but no demat account, the AMC or registrar keeps sending the statement itself, in compliance with regulation 36(4) of the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations.

Which depository sends it if I have two demat accounts?

The one where the older account sits. Where an investor has accounts across both depositories, the depository holding the demat account that was opened earlier is the default depository, and it consolidates across depositories and mutual fund investments and dispatches the statement. The investor is given the option to switch and receive the CAS through the other depository instead.

Monthly or half yearly: which one applies to you

This is the rule people get wrong, and it turns on activity rather than on holdings.

Email is the default channel. The CAS is dispatched by email to every investor whose email address is registered with the depositories and the AMCs or registrars, and an investor who does not want email can ask for physical dispatch to the registered address. Depositories also send a quarterly SMS naming the email id the CAS is being sent to, which is the cheapest way to catch a stale address before a statement goes missing.

What the CAS does and does not settle

It settles the depository participant's reporting duty. The master circular states that dispatch of CAS by the depositories to beneficial owners constitutes compliance by the participants with the requirement under regulation 60 of the D and P Regulations to provide statements of account, and compliance by the mutual funds with regulation 36(4) of the Mutual Funds Regulations. One statement, two obligations discharged. Reading it line by line is covered in how to read a depository holding statement.

It does not settle accountability for the contents. AMCs and mutual fund registrars are accountable for the authenticity of the mutual fund information and for sharing it on time; the depositories are responsible for timely dispatch and for the demat account information. A grievance about a wrong mutual fund line goes to the fund's side of that split, not to the depository.

It is also not a public disclosure. A CAS is private account data for one PAN. The filings that disclose holdings to the market are different documents on a different clock: the quarterly shareholding pattern for a company's owners, and the monthly mutual fund portfolio statement for a scheme's holdings.

How to opt out, and what happens if you do

An investor who does not wish to receive CAS can indicate negative consent. Where that option is exercised, the depository informs the AMC or registrar, and that investor's data stops being shared with the depository for the purpose. The consolidated view goes away and the separate statements resume. Depositories were required to tell investors about the facility and the opt out in their statements from January 2015, and the CAS itself has run since March 2015 for transactions carried out in February 2015.

So a consolidated account statement is a PAN level merge of two registers, on a monthly clock when you transact and a half yearly clock when you do not.

Flock reports the filings themselves, each one dated and linked to its source. What any disclosure means for your money is your call to make. Not investment advice.