RBI makes KYC updation process simpler; no more re-submitting documents for minor changes

The Reserve Bank of India has made the know your customer (KYC) rules simpler for both customer onboarding and updation of identification documents.

A self-declaration by customers regarding “no change in KYC information” or “a change only in address details” will henceforth be good enough for KYC updation.

This is in sync with what RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said in March: "We need to ensure that once a customer has submitted documents to a financial institution, we do not insist on obtaining the same documents again."

The central bank on Friday told banks and other financial services institutions to accept such declarations from customer’s registered email id or mobile number. The declaration can be submitted from ATMs, and other digital channels such as online banking mobile applications.

The periodic updation of KYC records can be carried out at any bank branch or any office of the financial institutions with which customers maintain the account. RBI also allowed Aadhaar OTP based e-KYC and V-CIP for periodic KYC.

The central bank said it received several complaints from customers regarding challenges faced by them in periodic updation of their KYC. It has also observed a large pendency in such cases including in the accounts opened for credit of direct benefit transfer (DBT) and electronic benefit transfer under government schemes.

Customers may be onboarded in face-to-face mode through Aadhaar biometric based e-KYC authentication and in such case, if they want to provide a current address, different from the address as per the identity information available in the UIDAI database, they may give a self-declaration to that effect.

In case of non-face-to-face onboarding, such accounts shall be placed under strict monitoring, and the due diligence needs to be completed within a year.