INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
bourse, Yogesh Choksey shut up shop last year, missing out on a record-breaking equity rally that would usually boost profits for
iconic Jeejeebhoy Towers, home to the BSE in the old business district of Mumbai.
Choksey, 65, is part of a dying breed of traditional
stockbrokers in India, whose numbers have shrunk by about three quarters in less than six years
2,400 brokerages as of Dec
24, down from more than 9,000 in March 2014, data from the regulator show
The decline has been intensified by the shuttering of 13 regional bourses, which forced about 3,000 brokers out of business between 2014 and
2017.
The emergence of discount online brokers has turned the industry into a business of high volumes and wafer-thin margins, prompting
leader Zerodha, a discount broker which boasts more than 1.5 million clients
It offers free trades if customers hold shares longer than a day and collects less than 30 cents on intraday and derivatives orders.
Zerodha
Also at issue are the costs and efforts needed to meet stricter compliance and reporting obligations, which apply regardless of a
The company broke rules that mandate segregation of broker and client accounts, Sebi Chairman Ajay Tyagi said in Mumbai on Nov
be no bad thing for the new breed of Indian investors, according to Suresh Sadagopan, founder of Mumbai-based Ladder7 Financial Advisories
membership in autumn of 2018, exiting the business has been a relief
He could no longer compete with full-service brokers charging as little as 0.1 rupee per trade, he said
His clients, about 25 wealthy families, moved to larger firms
