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The Modi 3.0 government is very serious about rolling out uniform KYC in the financial services industry.
In this context, M Nagaraju, Secretary, Department of Financial Services (DFS) chaired a meeting in New Delhi. Senior executives of ministries, IRDAI, PFRDA, RBI, SEBI, financial institutions and other stakeholders attended this meeting to discuss issues related to revamp of the existing Central KYC Records Registry (CKYCR) and key issues related to implementation of uniform KYC.
The government said that it will make the lives of investors comfortable while availing financial services like opening a bank account or buying mutual funds or an insurance policy.
In the meeting, Nagaraju emphasized the need for the modernization of the CKYCR and streamlining of the KYC process.
Also, the officials discussed the key issues & challenges concerning individuals and regulated entities, measures taken by the government and financial sector regulators so far and proposed measures for further enhancing efficiency, reducing redundancy and improving security relating to KYC process across financial sectors.
Officials have made several suggestions, which the government will consider to ease the KYC process, said the press release.
In the Budget 2025, the government had proposed rolling out a revamped central KYC registry by 2025. The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said, “To implement the earlier announcement on simplifying the KYC process, the revamped Central KYC Registry will be rolled out in 2025. We will also implement a streamlined system for periodic updating.”
The Central KYC Registry (CKYC Registry) keeps KYC records of all customers in the financial sector which can be used by institutions like mutual funds, stock brokers, insurance firms, banks and SEBI registered Investment Advisers to verify and download KYC data.
Currently, SEBI, IRDAI and PFRDA upload verified KYC details of investors in Central KYC Records Registry (CKYCRR).
This opens the door for mutual fund distributors to use CKYC data of insurance and pension funds. However, banks are yet to upload KYC details in this system. If they start uploading KYC details of their customers, only a bank account will be sufficient to invest across all financial products.
