SOA or demat: the two ways your mutual funds can be held

By Ashutosh Purohit, Co-founder & CEO, Yenmo (previously at Navi and Swiggy) · Published 28 October 2026

Open Zerodha Coin and your funds sit next to your shares. Open a CAMS statement and the same kind of fund shows up with a folio number instead. Both are real mutual fund units, held in two different ways, and most investors never notice until something like a loan, a transfer or a nominee change makes the difference matter.

SOA stands for statement of account. It means your units are recorded directly with the fund's registrar, CAMS or KFintech, under a folio number. Demat means they're recorded in a demat account with a depository, NSDL or CDSL, the same way your shares are. The units, NAV and returns are identical either way. What changes is where the record lives, and so who you go to when you want to do something with them.

The short version

• SOA is the original way funds were held in India. Demat came later, mainly so funds could be bought through stock exchanges and brokers.
• Neither form is better. They suit different investors.
• You can convert from one to the other without selling, but it takes paperwork and time.
• When you borrow against your funds, the form decides how they're pledged, and not every lender handles both.

What does SOA mean in mutual funds?

When you invest through a fund house's website, a distributor, or a platform like MF Central, your units are usually held in SOA form. The fund's registrar keeps the record. India has two big ones, CAMS and KFintech, and between them they service the fund houses.

Each time you invest, you get a statement of account showing your folio number, the units you hold and every transaction. That statement is your proof of ownership. There's no certificate and no demat account involved.

And what does demat mean?

Demat is short for dematerialised. Your units sit in a demat account with a depository (NSDL or CDSL), opened through a depository participant, which is usually your stockbroker. They show up in the same holdings list as your shares, and the depository sends you a statement covering both.

If you've bought funds on Zerodha Coin, they're in demat. Some other apps, Groww among them, can hold funds either way.

Why does India have both?

Because the two systems grew up at different times, for different jobs.

SOA came first. When SEBI wrote its mutual fund rules in 1996, it required fund houses to give investors either a statement of account or, only if the investor asked, a unit certificate. Statements quickly became the norm, and the registrars became the record-keepers for the whole industry.

Demat arrived with the stock exchanges. In late 2009, SEBI let investors buy and redeem mutual funds through stock-exchange platforms. NSE launched its platform on 30 November 2009 and BSE launched StAR MF on 4 December 2009. Units bought this way had to be in demat, because that's how exchanges settle trades.

Then demat became a choice for everyone. From 1 October 2011, SEBI required every fund house to offer a demat option on its application forms. That same month, consolidated account statements began, pulling a PAN's holdings across all fund houses into one monthly statement. From early 2015, that statement also covered demat holdings, so most investors could finally see both forms in one place.

And SOA kept getting easier too. In September 2021, CAMS and KFintech launched MF Central, a single portal for managing SOA holdings across fund houses.

So neither form replaced the other. Brokers built on demat because their customers already had demat accounts for shares. Fund houses, distributors and advisers stayed with SOA because it needs no demat account at all.

What changes for you day to day?

Most of the time, nothing. The differences show up when you want to do something with your units.

A couple of things in that table are changing. Systematic withdrawal and transfer plans have long been harder to set up on demat units; SEBI allowed standing instructions for them in July 2026, and fund houses are rolling it out in phases.

Which one should you choose?

There's no single right answer, and you don't have to pick one for life.

Demat suits you if you already invest in shares through a broker and want everything in one app and one statement. SOA suits you if you'd rather deal with fund houses directly, switch between schemes easily, or not keep a demat account at all.

Plenty of people end up with both without planning it: an old SIP started through a bank or distributor in SOA, newer funds bought on a broker's app in demat. That's fine. Your consolidated account statement shows everything together.

Can you move funds from one form to the other?

Yes, and it doesn't count as selling, so there's no tax to pay.

To go from SOA to demat, you give your depository participant (your broker) a conversion request form along with your statement of account. The request goes through the depository to the registrar, which moves the units into your demat account. Going the other way is called rematerialisation: you submit a remat request form to your broker, and the registrar issues you a statement of account.

How long it takes varies. Fund houses and brokers quote anything from a couple of working days to several weeks, so don't convert in a hurry if you need the units soon.

Why does the form matter when you borrow?

This is where the difference stops being trivia. To lend against your funds, a lender has to pledge them, and the two forms use completely different systems. SOA units get a lien marked with CAMS or KFintech. Demat units get pledged through NSDL or CDSL, the same way shares are.

Many lenders have built only one of those routes, so if your funds are split across both forms, you might be told to convert some of them first. You shouldn't have to. Yenmo takes both: SOA holdings with CAMS and KFintech, demat funds from any broker, and your shares, all in one loan account with one limit. Loans start at ₹25,000 through our lending partner Bajaj Finance, with no annual fee and no foreclosure charge.

If your funds are spread across Zerodha, Groww and CAMS, here's how one loan can cover all of them. For the full picture of costs, see the loan against mutual funds page.

Frequently asked questions

What is SOA in mutual funds?

SOA stands for statement of account. It means your mutual fund units are recorded directly with the fund's registrar, CAMS or KFintech, under a folio number, rather than in a demat account. Your statement of account is your proof of ownership.

Is it better to hold mutual funds in demat or SOA?

Neither is better in itself; the units and returns are the same. Demat is convenient if you already hold shares through a broker. SOA needs no demat account, carries no demat maintenance fee and makes switching between schemes simpler.

How do I know if my mutual funds are in demat or SOA?

If a fund appears in your broker's demat holdings, it's in demat. If it has a folio number and appears on a CAMS or KFintech statement but not in your demat account, it's SOA. Your consolidated account statement (CAS) shows both.

Can I convert SOA mutual funds to demat, or demat to SOA?

Yes. Submit a conversion request form to your depository participant to move SOA units into demat, or a remat request form to move demat units back to SOA. It isn't a sale, so there's no tax, but it can take from a few days to a few weeks.

Can I take a loan against mutual funds held in SOA form?

Yes. SOA units are pledged by marking a lien with CAMS or KFintech. Yenmo accepts SOA holdings, demat funds and shares in one account, with loans from ₹25,000 through Bajaj Finance.

Yenmo Technologies Pvt Ltd is a loan service provider. Loans are sanctioned and disbursed by RBI-regulated lending partners. Yenmo is also an AMFI-registered mutual fund distributor (ARN 361524). This article explains how mutual fund holdings work and is not investment advice.