Indian investors opened a record 14.2 million new DEMAT accounts in the financial year end March 2021. This is nearly three times the figure in the previous financial year, as the global pandemic and business disruptions opened-up new investment opportunities. The broking industry’s transformation which started about five years with access to affordable smart phones, high-speed internet, and stock trading apps, just accelerated in the past one year. Smaller towns and cities are the new hotspots.
Millennials and other young entreprenuers have a higher share of participation compared to their parents. This is a great time for the broking industry. “We expect the trend to continue and result in massive growth for the industry in the next five years,” says the team at IIFL Securities Ltd. It is one of the key capital market players in the Indian financial services space.
The company is a part of the diversified financial services conglomerate IIFL Group, which was founded by legendary serial entrepreneur Mr. Nirmal Jain. Starting from a small research firm – Probity, the group has transformed into a multi-billion-dollar empire in just over two decades. Today the group has three distinct listed entities – IIFL Finance, IIFL Wealth and IIFL Securities – each leader in the areas of non-banking finance, wealth management and broking, respectively.
The Founder’s Tale
Mr. Nirmal Jain, Founder of IIFL Group, is a rank-holder chartered accountant and MBA from IIM Ahmadabad. He started his career with Hindustan Unilever just before Indian economy underwent economic liberalization. Mr. Jain decided to take the entrepreneurial plunge in 1995 and started a research house which produced high-quality research on many Indian companies. Such information was not earlier available with Indian investing community and within no time reputation grew multi-fold.
Mr. Jain then started indiainfoline.com, as a knowledge website for stock market information in the year 1999, the first such website for Indian investors, and the website remains among the most visited website in its category even after two decades. At the turn of the millennium, Mr. Jain disrupted India’s broking industry by providing the most affordable trading to retail investors on an advanced digital platform. In two decades, the company has grown into India’s largest independent non-bank full-service broking and advisory firm present in 2500 locations, with over 23 lac customers and about Rs 3 lac crore of assets under management. Dynamics of IIFL
IIFL Securities Limited (Formerly India Infoline Limited) is one of the largest independent full-service retail and institutional broking house along with being a leading investment advisory firm in India providing diversified financial services and products to corporate institutions, institutional investors, foreign portfolio investors, mutual funds, insurance companies, alternative investment funds, trusts, high net worth individuals and retail clients.
IIFL Securities has established itself through a combination of leading-edge technology, diverse product offerings, management expertise, and a wide network of branches across India. The Company has developed long-term relationships with its customers with sustained high-quality performance and continues to be their preferred investment partner.
The company’s vision is “To be the most respected financial services company in India. Not necessarily the largest or most profitable.” The company is guided by the values – Fairness, Integrity and Trust (FIT). Fairness stands for fairness in our transactions with all stakeholders including employees, customers, and vendors, bereft of fear or favour. Integrity stands for integrity and honesty of the utmost nature, in letter, in spirit, and in all our dealings with people, internal or external. Transparency stands for transparency in all our dealings with stakeholders, media, investors, and the public at large.
Employees remain at the core of IIFL Securities as an organisation and no wonder it is also one of the most liked workplaces in broking industry. The company just received the ‘Great Place to Work’ certification for the third time in a row. Great Place to Work® Trust Index© Employee Survey is world’s most widely used model to understand employee perceptions about their workplaces.
TRUST INDEX© Score for IIFL Securities is 81, indicating high trust score, based on responses shared by employees. The employees rated credibility of management at 82, respect for people at 80, fairness at workplace at 76, pride at 85 and camaraderie between people at 82. High Great Place to Work® Trust Index© score positively impacts productivity, innovation, costs, and other business results.
IIFL Tomorrow
IIFL Securities has brought about many innovations and positive disruptions to Indian broking industry even when digital transformation was in an early stage. The company’s well known Trader Terminal desktop application is a legend among traders and IIFL Markets app revolutionized the mobile-based trading in India forever. IIFL Securities has some of the finest in-house resources and large investments dedicated into technology and innovation, which not only benefits the company but the broking industry.
The company also partners, collaborates with multiple fintechs to create the best technology-based customer experiences. It recently hired Mr. Sandeep Bhardwaj as CEO for Retail Business, Mr. Nandkishore Purohit as Chief Digital Officer and Manav Verma, as CMO with a focus on digital customer acquisition. Its team aims to add 10 million customers in the next three years and retain the leadership position.
IIFL aims to maintain its leadership position in broking, advisory, financial products distribution, institutional equities, and investment banking areas. The company recently acquired over 11 lac demat accounts of Karvy and aims to add 1 crore more customers in the next three years.
