ISR Forms Explained: ISR-1 to ISR-5, and What Changed for Transmission

If you hold shares on paper, almost every request you make to a company's registrar starts with an ISR form. SEBI standardised them so every registrar asks for the same thing. The names don't tell you much, so here is what each one does.

The forms

• ISR-1: registering or updating PAN and KYC details on a folio, including address, bank account, email, mobile number and signature
• ISR-2: your bank's confirmation of your signature, used when your signature doesn't match the registrar's records or there's none on file
• ISR-3: a declaration that you are opting out of nomination
• ISR-4: service requests, including duplicate certificates, claims from the unclaimed suspense account, transposition, and exchange, sub-division or consolidation of certificates
• ISR-5: was the transmission request form. It has been superseded: since SEBI's July 2026 transmission framework came into force, a nominee, surviving joint holder or legal heir uses that framework's own forms — Annexure-3, or Annexure-2 for quick transmission of small holdings.

Two nomination forms sit alongside them: SH-13 to register a nominee, and SH-14 to cancel or change one.

Which form for what

• Changing your address: ISR-1, with address proof
• Updating bank details: ISR-1, with a cancelled cheque bearing your name, or a bank-attested copy of your passbook or statement
• Your signature has changed over the years: ISR-2, filled in and attested by your bank, together with ISR-1
• Lost or damaged certificates: ISR-4. Duplicate shares under the December 2025 rules.
• A shareholder has died: no longer an ISR form. Use SEBI's July 2026 transmission forms — Annexure-3, or Annexure-2 for small holdings. Transmission after death.
• Registering a nominee: SH-13. If you choose not to, ISR-3.
• Moving shares into demat: your depository participant starts that; the registrar may ask for ISR-1 first if the folio's KYC is incomplete. Physical shares to demat.

Why an incomplete folio matters

SEBI requires physical folios to carry PAN, contact details, bank account and specimen signature. From 1 April 2024, dividends on folios without these are paid only electronically, once the details are updated. Until then, the money stays with the company, and unpaid dividends that stay unclaimed for seven years go to IEPF, taking the shares with them. Why shares move to IEPF.

Getting the forms right

• Download the forms from the registrar's website or the company's investor page, so you have the current version
• Use one form per request, but send related forms together: ISR-1 and ISR-2 are often needed as a pair
• Sign the same way on every page, and the way you sign on your bank records
• Self-attest copies of PAN and address proof
• For joint holdings, every holder signs where the form asks

Registrars also accept many of these requests electronically with an e-sign. See our guides to KFintech and MUFG Intime.