Linking bank accounts to Aadhaar mandatory, confirms RBI

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Saturday confirmed that it is mandatory to link bank accounts to Aadhaar.

The statement from the RBI was issued in the wake of some news reports quoting a reply to a Right To Information (RTI) application that Aadhaar number linkage with bank accounts is not mandatory.

The statement further clarified, in applicable cases, linkage of Aadhaar number to bank account is mandatory under the Prevention of Money-laundering (Maintenance of Records) Second Amendment Rules, 2017 published in the Official Gazette on June 1, 2017.

These rules have statutory force and, banks have to implement them without awaiting further instructions, added the RBI statement.