The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has introduced an assistant to help those who have lost track of old mutual fund investments and want to reclaim the money.
The tool called, the Mutual Fund Investment Tracing and Retrieval Assistant (Mitra) was rolled out because prior to 2006, investors could open mutual fund accounts without a permanent account number (PAN) and thus, the online portals won’t show it now.
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Many of these same older folios have since gone inactive (No transactions in 10 years, but a balance remains), making it difficult for investors to retrieve their holdings, according to a Mint report.
As of now, there are more than 7.5 million inactive folios across the industry, the report read.
How Mitra works
“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,” the report quoted Vigneshkumaran, digital product head at KFin Tech Ltd as saying.
Additional details like address, PIN code, city, or nominee name will also further refine the search and help verify ownership.
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How to use the Mitra platform
Go to MFcentral.com and enter your PAN number. Verify using the OTP sent to the registered mobile number or email id.
You can the, refine the search by adding other details such as email, phone number, address, date of birth, nominee details, bank account number, city, or PIN code.
After entering details, clicking on “Proceed” will initiate a search for inactive or unclaimed folios linked to the provided details.
If a match is found, users can then follow the instructions on the platform to update their KYC and reclaim their investments.
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Mitra, which was officially launched on February 21, 2025, is to be rolled out in phases, with a two-month beta available initially for investors to use and provide feedback. As of now, it allows up to 25 search attempts per user.
