Remember that an unmasked Aadhaar is not a valid KYC proof.
CAMS KRA has clarified that the Aadhaar document is considered as ‘not in good order’ and ‘liable to rejection’ if clients forget to black out the first 8 digits of their Aadhaar number.
Cafemutual checked with two more KYC registration agencies and an R&T agent to confirm the development.
In the clarification, CAMS KRA said, “Intermediaries are requested to ensure that Aadhaar card copy, whenever attached as the official valid document, the clients black out the Aadhaar number. However, in respect to those Aadhaar documents wherever it is already masked i.e. only last 4 digits are visible, no further action is contemplated.”
A senior R&T official told Cafemutual that the industry may soon insist distributors and investors submit a photocopy of the masked Aadhaar. “Honestly, in some cases, even the masked Aadhaar digits are visible. Hence, the most appropriate way out is to insist investors submit a photocopy of the UIDAI issued document with the initial Aadhaar digits masked,” he said.
Fund houses and R&T agents can accept a copy of physical Aadhaar, e-Aadhaar, masked Aadhaar and offline Aadhaar XML. However, fund houses and R&T agents will have to ensure that the first 8 digits of the Aadhaar number are properly masked. They can only store the last 4 digits of the Aadhaar number on their system.
Currently, fund houses can accept Aadhaar as KYC document to verify the address and identity of investors. However, they cannot make Aadhaar mandatory for customers nor can they do Aadhaar based authentication for eKYC.
