Why do a few 3rd Party UPI IPO applications get an allotment?

As per the regulation, the funds for IPO applications should come from the bank account linked to the demat account used for the IPO application.

The stock exchanges along with the registrar and banks are responsible to validate this information.

Words from a leading registrar... "If the amounts blocked in a bank account of the applicant do not match the bank account linked to the demat account, we will ask the banks to confirm whether the bank account belongs to the applicant. If the bank confirms that it is a third party, we reject, otherwise the same is accepted."

Process of validating 3rd Party Bank Account in IPO Application

Following is the process stock exchanges, registrars, and banks follow to find the 3rd Party bank accounts used in the IPO application:

1. Once the public issue closes, the exchange sends the IPO application file to all the banks to take the confirmation that the bank account linked in the demat account is the same used in the IPO application.
2. Banks get only a day to revert. There are lakhs of records to validate.
3. Some banks revert with the confirmation of whether the account numbers match or not.
4. Exchange put a flag (Valid or 3rd Party) and sends it to the registrar.
5. The registrar rejects all IPO applications which are flagged as 3rd party.
6. In some cases, the 3rd party flag comes as empty from the exchange. It happens in the case where a few banks do not respond in the given time. These are the records that are neither rejected nor accepted by the bank.
7. The registrar sends the file with pending records to the banks again and waits for one more day. Registrar gets a few confirmations. Some banks still do not respond in time.
8. If confirmation is not received from banks, the benefit of the doubt is given to the IPO applicant. This is because banks are supposed to own this. No one else can confirm if the information is correct or not.
9. Wherever such confirmations do not come, by default those applications cannot be rejected, hence they are considered for allotment.

It's a wrong thing that these people are getting allotments but there is no way to check because banks are the only agency that can check the account number.

Banks are not able to handle the load of validating lakhs of IPO application data for every IPO in a short period. Thus they don't send the confirmation and in the process, some people are getting benefited.

As per the registrar, a few applications fall under the category of 'not-validated 3rd party bank account'. They are not ready to share the actual percentage of these applications.