Investing directly in equity shares abroad – A buyer's experience

Given that incremental investments in most international mutual funds have been restricted for quite some time now, we decided to explore the other route to investing overseas - through direct investments in foreign stocks or exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Parallelly, we opened two separate accounts to facilitate trading foreign stocks - one with India INX of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and another with Interactive Brokers. As we have discussed in one of our stories, India INX has recently emerged and is located in the Gift City of International Financial Services Centre (IFSC). India INX is a fully-owned subsidiary of the BSE and its website mentions that it has tie-ups with multiple foreign brokers and it will open your account with one of them. However, our account was opened with Interactive Brokers only. Nevertheless, we decided to open a separate account with Interactive Brokers directly to see if the added layer makes any difference. Based in the US, Interactive Brokers is a multinational-brokerage firm and has been in the business for long. Here is a narrative of our experience. Onboarding No matter whether you go through India INX or choose Interactive Brokers directly, opening an account is an absolute breeze. When it comes to the account-opening process and the interface of both options, there is hardly any difference except their logos. Please refer to the following screenshots. The entire process is completely online. You need to submit an account-opening form with basic details, including name, address and date of birth, your experience with stocks, your source of income and employment. In addition, you need to provide your estimated net worth and your Permanent Account Number (PAN). In terms of documents, you would be asked to upload a copy of your address proof. Regular documents like Aadhaar, Driving License and Voter's ID card are accepted. Interestingly, the account that we opened directly with Interactive Brokers was activated within a couple of hours and a confirmation message was sent to our registered e-mail id. However, no such email was sent in the case of India INX but the account was ready for operation the very next day when we logged in for the second time. Although the maximum turnaround time of Interactive Brokers varies from three to four working days, it is quite possible that accounts can be operational within a few hours. Remitting mon