Brokerage Shutdown: Your Investments Are Safer Than You Think

• Your equity shares and ETFs are held with depositories (CDSL/NSDL) in your name, not the broker's, ensuring ownership even if the firm collapses.
• Mutual funds are held with the fund house and its registrar; a platform shutdown does not cancel your ownership.
• The main vulnerability is uninvested cash in your trading account, which can be slow to retrieve if a broker is in trouble.
• Regulators and exchanges step in to freeze activity, reconcile holdings, and invoke investor protection funds, though the process can be lengthy.
• To stay safe: regularly download statements, keep surplus cash in your bank, and diversify across multiple brokers if your portfolio is sizable.