Lost track of old mutual fund investments? Sebi’s ‘Mitra’ is here to help.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. For millions of investors who’ve lost track of old mutual fund investments, India's markets regulator is offering a new mitra—or friend— to help. The Mutual Fund Investment Tracing and Retrieval Assistant (Mitra), launched by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), is designed to track down inactive and unclaimed mutual fund folios, helping investors reclaim money they may have forgotten.

These days, accessing mutual fund investments is as simple as logging into an online portal with a permanent account number (PAN). But before 2006, investors could open mutual fund accounts without one. Many of those older folios have since gone dormant, making it difficult to retrieve holdings.

Read this | How can you save tax on mutual funds by forming a Hindu Undivided Family unit? Sebi defines an inactive folio as one where no investor-initiated transactions—financial or otherwise—have occurred in the past 10 years, yet a balance remains. With millions of such accounts left unclaimed, Mitra aims to bridge the gap and help investors recover their lost investments. To build and operate Mitra, Sebi has enlisted KFin Technologies and CAMS, two of the largest qualified registrar and transfer agents (QRTAs) in India.

The platform allows investors to search for old mutual fund folios using multiple identifiers—not just PAN. "The platform will search for inactive folios using a combination of the investor’s name and at least one primary parameter—PAN, registered phone number, email, or bank account number," explains Vigneshkumaran, digital product head at KFin Tech Ltd. Additional details like address, PIN code, city, or nominee name will further refine the search and help verify ownership.