'I have to delete my Zerodha account': Bengaluru techie's mail gets swift reply from Nithin Kamath

When his wife joined a global investment bank, Sachin Jha didn’t expect it would force him to quit Zerodha. But the compliance order was brutal and non-negotiable:

“Close all Zerodha accounts. They’re not a ‘trusted broker.’”

The issue? Zerodha didn’t have a physical bank tag and that was enough to trigger internal red flags.

Jha, a product manager in Bengaluru, wasn’t ready to go quietly. He fired off a last-ditch email to Zerodha CEO Nithin Kamath—more out of curiosity than hope. Ten minutes later, Kamath replied.

What followed wasn’t just a response. It was a crash course in what a $2 billion customer obsession looks like.

“As a PMM nerd, I loved their seamless UI,” Jha wrote on LinkedIn. But corporate mandates don’t leave room for personal preferences. So he emailed Kamath, half-expecting silence.

Instead, Kamath responded almost instantly—and his team sprang into action.

• They immediately acknowledged the compliance gap: “We’re fixing this with banks.”
• They requested Jha’s help to directly connect with his wife’s employer for a compliance partnership.
• They shared a roadmap to build institutional trust—something Zerodha is actively working on.

“I still closed my account,” Jha admitted. “But they won my trust for life.”

Zerodha’s no-bank-status has always been a double-edged sword. Its digital-only model has helped it scale fast and stay lean, but the absence of physical infrastructure raises trust issues in traditional circles. Kamath himself has publicly acknowledged the gap.

While digital is efficient for trading and small-value services, “a physical presence is crucial” for broader financial advice, lending, and institutional credibility.

Zerodha isn’t eyeing a banking license anytime soon. Kamath has cited regulatory risk as a major deterrent. For now, the brokerage is expanding through partnerships—like those with platforms such as smallcase—and keeping its focus on operational efficiency.