Soon, you may be able to buy mutual fund units, shares, insurance policies, bank deposits and other such financial products with a single Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance.
Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-Ind), the national agency monitoring suspect financial transactions, has initiated discussions with different financial sector regulators to build a common database, which could be utilised by all financial services agencies.
On the sidelines of a conference, P K Tiwari, director, FIU-India, said: “The recent move by the capital market regulator, providing a common KYC for all securities market products, is a good initiative. It should be expanded across all other segments of the market.”
At present, each sectoral regulators — the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, the Reserve Bank of India, Pension Funds Regulatory and Development Authority and the Forward Markets Commission have different KYC requirements. This means users are now required to fill in numerous columns in multiple forms every time they buy a new product.
“How many cards am I supposed to carry? In countries like Hong Kong, there is only one. It serves all the different purposes. But here we have PAN, TIN and UID. Each agency wants to promote its own product as the valid proof, creating duplication. If this could be avoided, it is welcome,” said a chief compliance officer of a public sector bank.
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