Sebi extends Central KYC Registry to legal entities

Sebi on Wednesday asked regulated entities to upload 'Know Your Customer' data pertaining to accounts of legal entities opened on or after April 1, onto the Central KYC Registry

Markets regulator Sebi on Wednesday asked regulated entities to upload 'Know Your Customer' data pertaining to accounts of legal entities (LEs) opened on or after April 1, onto the Central KYC Registry (CKYCR).

Regulated entities (REs) have already been uploading the KYC data pertaining to all individual accounts opened on or after August 1, 2016, onto CKYCR.

"Since CKYCR is fully operational for individual clients, it has been decided to extend CKYCR to legal entities as well," the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said in a circular.

"Accordingly, RIs (registered intermediaries) shall upload the KYC records of LE accounts opened on or after April 1, 2021, on to CKYCR in terms ...of the Prevention of Money Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005," it added.

The regulator has also comes out with a template for legal entity in this regard.
 

RIs would have to ensure that in the case of LE accounts opened prior to April 1, 2021, the KYC records are uploaded on to CKYCR when the updated KYC information is obtained/received from the client, Sebi said.

Also, registered entities would have to ensure that during such receipt of updated information, the clients' KYC details are migrated to current client due diligence standards.

Further, to ensure that all existing KYC records of individual clients are incrementally uploaded on to CKYCR, Sebi said registered entities would have to upload the KYC records pertaining to accounts of individuals opened prior to August 1, 2016, as and when updated KYC information is obtained/received from the client.

Where a client, for the purpose of establishing an account-based relationship, submits a KYC identifier to an RI with an explicit consent to download records from CKYCR, then such RI would retrieve the KYC records online from CKYCR using the KYC identifier. The client will not be required to submit the same KYC records unless there is a change in the information of the client as existing in the records of CKYCR.

Once KYC identifier is generated by CKYCR, the RIs would have ensure that the same is communicated to the legal entity.

The provisions of this circular are not applicable to Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said.