How to empanel Zerodha as a broker for a company or institution

Empanelling Zerodha as a broker for a company or institution is the formal step by which the entity approves Zerodha Broking Limited onto its panel of brokers, after its own due diligence, so it can route securities orders through Zerodha under a board mandate. This is broader than opening a corporate account . A treasury, a non-banking financial company or a trust with an internal investment policy will not simply sign an account form; it will run the broker through a vetting file, record the approval in a board resolution, and then open the account as the operational outcome of that approval. This guide covers both halves: the institution-side empanelment vetting, and the Zerodha-side non-individual account opening that follows.

The audience here is the person who manages that process: a company secretary, treasury head, compliance officer or finance controller. The regulatory anchors are concrete. Zerodha Broking Limited holds SEBI stockbroker registration INZ000031633, is a member of the National Stock Exchange , the Bombay Stock Exchange , the Multi Commodity Exchange and the Metropolitan Stock Exchange, and carries depository participant registration IN-DP-431-2019 with CDSL . Those identifiers are what an empanelment file is built around.

Conflict-of-interest disclosure. This guide is published by the WebNotes Editorial Team for informational purposes and is written independently. WebNotes operates a Zerodha account-opening referral programme, disclosed on the pages that carry the referral link; this guide does not carry it and earns no referral commission from the procedure described here.

Step-by-step procedure

The numbered procedure box at the top of this guide sets out the empanelment-to-account sequence. The H3 steps below expand each one, and the thematic sections that follow add the detail on due diligence, the board resolution, beneficial ownership and RMS limits.

1. Run the institution’s broker due diligence on Zerodha

Collect Zerodha’s SEBI registration certificate, exchange memberships, net-worth certificate and audited financials, and assess them against your treasury or investment policy before approving Zerodha onto the panel. The due-diligence file is covered below.

2. Pass a board resolution empanelling Zerodha

Hold a board meeting and resolve to empanel Zerodha Broking Limited, naming authorised signatories, the segments approved and any exposure limits the mandate sets. The resolution must be certified true.

3. Confirm the objects clause permits securities dealing

Verify the memorandum permits investing or dealing in securities. If it does not, amend it by special resolution under Section 13 of the Companies Act 2013 and file with the Registrar of Companies before applying.

4. Compile the non-individual account-opening pack

Assemble the offline corporate kit: certificate of incorporation, memorandum and articles, entity PAN, the certified board resolution, signatory KYC, FATCA declaration and the beneficial-ownership declaration, with a cancelled cheque from the corporate current account.

5. Disclose ultimate beneficial owners

List every natural person who ultimately owns or controls the entity above the SEBI threshold, with PAN and identity proof, tracing through institutional shareholders to the individuals behind them.

6. Complete in-person verification of signatories

Each authorised signatory completes IPV on a video call or by the signed IPV declaration, holding PAN to the camera and stating name, entity and designation.

7. Courier the pack and set RMS limits

Send the signed forms and a Rs 500 cheque to Zerodha’s Bengaluru office. On activation, configure trading limits and exposure in line with the board mandate.

Empanelment versus account opening

The two steps are often run together but are not the same. Account opening is the act of creating a trading and demat relationship with one broker. Empanelment is the institution’s internal decision, governed by its own policy, to admit a broker to a list it is allowed to deal through. A large treasury may empanel several brokers and split order flow across them for best execution and counterparty diversification; the empanelment file is the record of why each was approved.

For a small private company the distinction can collapse into a single board resolution and one account. For an NBFC , a portfolio manager , an insurer’s treasury or a trust with a fiduciary duty, the empanelment vetting is a separate, documented exercise: a due-diligence questionnaire, a review of the broker’s financial strength and regulatory standing, and sign-off against the entity’s risk policy. The account is then opened as the implementation of that approval.

The broker due-diligence file

The institution’s first task is to collect and assess what it needs from Zerodha to justify empanelment. The standard pack a vetting file is built from is:

Many institutions add a due-diligence questionnaire covering grievance history, technology resilience, segregation of client funds, and the broker’s own compliance staffing. A discount broker like Zerodha publishes its registration details and financials, so the file can be assembled from primary sources rather than relying on the broker’s marketing. Verify the SEBI registration directly on the regulator’s intermediary database rather than taking the number on trust.

Authorising empanelment: the board resolution

Empanelment must be authorised by the entity’s governing body. For a company that is the board, acting by resolution at a meeting held under Section 173 of the Companies Act 2013 , which permits attendance by video conferencing. The resolution should record:

• The decision to empanel Zerodha Broking Limited as an approved broker.
• The segments approved: equity delivery, intraday, derivatives , currency or commodity, listing only those the mandate permits.
• The authorised signatories, with names, designations and specimen signatures, who may operate the account and place orders.
• Any exposure or value limits the board sets on dealings through the broker.
• The corporate current account at a scheduled bank that will be the settlement account.

The resolution must be certified true by a director or the company secretary, with the company seal if the entity uses one. A generic resolution that authorises opening demat and trading accounts without naming Zerodha Broking Limited is commonly queried, so draft it specifically. For an LLP, partnership or trust, the equivalent authority is a partners’ resolution or a trustees’ resolution under the deed.

Before the resolution, confirm the objects clause permits dealing in securities. If a company’s memorandum does not, a special resolution under Section 13 of the Companies Act 2013 must amend the objects clause, and the amended memorandum must be filed with the Registrar of Companies before the account can open. That amendment runs to a few weeks and cannot be fixed after submission.

The non-individual account-opening pack

Once empanelment is approved, the account is opened on Zerodha’s offline non-individual route; there is no online eKYC path for entities. The pack, per Zerodha’s corporate account-opening guidance, includes the account-opening application in the entity’s legal name, the FATCA and CRS declaration, the beneficial-ownership declaration, an authorised-signatory KYC form for each signatory, and a segment-activation annexure. Supporting documents are certified true copies of the certificate of incorporation, the full memorandum and articles, the entity PAN, the board resolution, GST registration where applicable, the latest audited financials, and a cancelled cheque from the corporate current account.

The account-opening fee is Rs 500 for a corporate, partnership or LLP account, paid by a cheque favouring Zerodha Broking Limited couriered with the pack. Individual or savings accounts of directors cannot be used as the settlement account; the funds settle only to a current account in the entity’s registered name.

Beneficial ownership disclosure

The beneficial-ownership step is where institutional applications most often fail, so treat it carefully. SEBI’s beneficial-ownership identification framework, set out in the SEBI Guidelines on Identification of Beneficial Ownership dated 24 January 2013 and consolidated into the SEBI Master Circular on KYC norms for the securities market dated 12 October 2023, requires the entity to identify every natural person who ultimately owns or controls it above a threshold. For a company the threshold is 25 per cent of shares or capital or profits; for a partnership firm, trust or unincorporated association of persons it is 15 per cent.

The disclosure must reach the ultimate individuals. Listing only an institutional or holding-company shareholder, without tracing through to the natural persons behind it, causes rejection. Where a corporate shareholder itself owns above the threshold, the look-through continues until a natural person is reached, or the senior managing official is named where no individual meets the threshold. Brokers may apply tighter operational thresholds than the statutory floor; Zerodha’s corporate guidance applies its own lower percentage in practice, so disclose conservatively rather than to the bare statutory minimum.

In-person verification of signatories

Each authorised signatory named in the board resolution completes in-person verification . For non-individual accounts Zerodha typically schedules a short video call per signatory after the physical forms arrive, in which the signatory holds their PAN to the camera and states their name, the entity’s name and their designation. A signed IPV declaration in the form can substitute where the account is opened entirely on paper. IPV is a SEBI requirement that the persons authorised to act are real and identified, not a Zerodha formality.

RMS limits and exposure after activation

Once the account is live, the risk management system governs how much the entity can trade against its funds. Zerodha applies its standard RMS to non-individual clients: buying power follows the cash and approved collateral transferred to the trading account, and leverage on intraday and derivatives positions follows Zerodha’s published margin policy. Segment activation for futures and options and for commodity needs income proof from the entity, and the currency segment needs the RBI declaration.

The board mandate is the institution’s own control layer above the broker’s RMS. If the resolution caps dealings at a value or restricts segments, the treasury enforces that through its internal authorisations and the funds it allots to the account, since the broker’s RMS limits exposure to available margin rather than to a policy ceiling. Read the two together: Zerodha’s RMS prevents over-trading against margin, and the board mandate prevents trading beyond what the entity has approved.

What this means in practice

For a small private company, empanelment and account opening fold into one board resolution and the offline corporate pack, with the Rs 500 fee and signatory IPV. For a treasury, NBFC or trust, the empanelment vetting is a distinct, documented step: build the broker due-diligence file around Zerodha’s SEBI registration INZ000031633 and its NSE, BSE, MCX and MSEI memberships, approve it against your investment policy, and only then open the account. The two failure points to watch are an objects clause that does not permit securities dealing, fixed only by a memorandum amendment before applying, and a beneficial-ownership declaration that stops at institutional shareholders instead of tracing to the natural persons behind them.

See also

• Zerodha
• Zerodha Broking Limited
• How to open a Zerodha corporate account
• Zerodha corporate account overview
• How to open a Zerodha partnership/LLP account
• How to open a Zerodha HUF account
• Ultimate beneficial owner
• Companies Act 2013
• Non-banking financial company
• Portfolio management services
• Risk management system
• In-person verification
• Know Your Client (KYC)
• Prevention of Money Laundering Act
• Permanent Account Number (PAN)
• SEBI
• National Stock Exchange
• Bombay Stock Exchange
• Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX)
• CDSL
• NSDL
• Depository participant
• Derivatives trading
• Futures and options
• Stock broker
• Authorised person
• Kite by Zerodha
• Zerodha Console

External references

• Zerodha support: documents required to open a corporate account
• Zerodha about: regulatory registrations
• Zerodha charges
• SEBI intermediary search
• SEBI Master Circular on KYC norms for the securities market, 12 October 2023

References

1. SEBI registration of Zerodha Broking Limited, stockbroker registration INZ000031633, SEBI intermediary database (accessed 20 June 2026).
2. SEBI Guidelines on Identification of Beneficial Ownership, 24 January 2013, consolidated in the SEBI Master Circular on KYC norms for the securities market, 12 October 2023.
3. Companies Act 2013, Section 13 (alteration of memorandum) and Section 173 (board meetings via video conferencing).
4. Zerodha, documents required to open a corporate account, support.zerodha.com (accessed 20 June 2026).
5. Zerodha, regulatory registrations and charges, zerodha.com/about and zerodha.com/charges (accessed 20 June 2026).