KYC is an acronym for "Know Your Customer" and is a term used for Customer Identification Process as a part of Account Opening process with any financial entity. KYC establishes an investor’s identity & address through relevant supporting documents such as prescribed photo id (e.g., PAN card) and address proof and In-Person Verification (IPV). KYC compliance is mandatory under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 and Rules framed there under, read with the SEBI Master Circular on Anti Money Laundering (AML) Standards/ Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) /Obligations of Securities Market Intermediaries.

W.e.f January 2012, SEBI has set out revised KYC norms to make the process uniform across Securities Market and introduced a common KYC application form for all the SEBI registered intermediaries viz. Mutual Funds, Portfolio Managers, Depository Participants, Stock Brokers, Venture Capital Funds, Collective Investment Schemes etc.

The intermediary shall perform the initial KYC of its clients and upload the details on the system of the KRA (KYC Registration Agency). When the client approaches another intermediary, the intermediary can verify and download the client's details from the system of the KRA. As a result, once the client has done KYC with a SEBI registered intermediary, the client need not undergo the same process again with another intermediary.

Since November 2022 KRAs are required to perform extended independent verification, re-verification of KYC records on following additional aspects in a phase wise manner:

• Validation of PAN, its operational status from Income Tax database including PAN-Aadhaar linking status.
• Source validation of KYC data (Name and address) from the Aadhaar records wherever Aadhaar is used as a Proof of Identity or Address (POI / POA). This is done using the digitally signed data provided by UIDAI / DigiLocker to the investor on his / her request.
• Verification of Email and Mobile as maintained in KYC records of the investor by sending Email/SMS intimation.

Accordingly, your KYC Status may have changed as below:

Investors can verify their KYC status through anyone of the KRA websites (details provided below) under KYC Inquiry and initiate action, (if any required) as per the information mentioned on the website. Investors can easily submit their re-KYC ( KYC modification) via their intermediary’s or Mutual fund’s website which are integrated with the KRAs. Thereafter, the back-end interoperability function of KRAs will seamlessly update the KYC records of the investor at the respective KRA.

KRAs also have dedicated helpdesks and call centres (details as below) where investors can call for any assistance or guidance.

For further information, please Click Here.

To initiate KYC modification, please Click Here.