A demat account is a brokerage account held by a bank or a broker, where securities are held in physical form. It is also known as an account held in dematerialized form.

A demat account allows you to buy and sell shares in your stock market portfolio from anywhere in the world through internet banking. The difference between a demat account and a NRI account is that NRI accounts are administered by non-resident Indians (NRIs), whereas demat accounts are administered by resident Indians.