Sebi does away with physical filing of KYC documents to KRAs

However, the physical documents would need to be submitted, whenever KRAs demand them

To streamline the process of Know Your Client (KYC) procedures, market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has done away with the filling of physical documents by investors to the KYC Registration Agencies (KRAs) in favour of the electronic format only.

The intermediaries, including mutual funds, would need to send scanned copies of investor documents to the KRAs and retain the physical documents with themselves.

However, the physical documents would need to be submitted whenever KRAs demand these.

So far, KRAs, responsible for maintaining KYC records across all Sebi-regulated entities, were required to maintain the original KYC documents both in physical as well as electronic formats. To minimise the physical paperwork, Sebi has amended its KRA regulations, as noted earlier.

“The intermediary shall perform the initial KYC/due diligence of the client, upload the KYC information with proper authentication on the system of the KRA, furnish the scanned images of the KYC documents to the KRA and retain the physical KYC documents,” Sebi said.

Even in cases of any change in investor KYC details, the market intermediaries would retain the updated documents in physical form with themselves.

According to the new norms, all market intermediaries and agents (RTI and STA) acting on behalf of mutual funds would also have to submit only scanned KYC documents to KRAs.

However, the intermediaries and mutual funds would have to furnish the physical KYC documents or authenticated copies, whenever desired by the KRAs, the market regulator said.