RBI relaxes KYC norms for UCBs to cater to foreign students
The Reserve Bank, on Tuesday, relaxed some norms of know your customer (KYC) for helping foreign students studying in the country to open bank accounts.
September 11, 2013 / 15:16 IST
To help foreign students studying in the country to open bank accounts, the Reserve Bank today extended relaxation in mandatory know-your-customer norms to urban cooperative banks (UCBs) for this purpose.
"UCBs may open a non-resident ordinary (NRO) bank account of a foreign student on the basis of his/her passport (with appropriate visa and immigration) which contains proof of identity and address in the home country along with a photograph and a letter offering admission from the educational institution," RBI said in a notification.Also read: Confident about Rajan; rupee grossly undervalued: KamathIt further said within 30 days of opening the said account, the student concerned should submit a valid local address proof, which could be a rent agreement or a letter from his/her educational institution.To help students further, it said the UCBs should not insist on the landlord visiting the branch for verification of rent documents and that alternative means of verification of local address may be adopted.Last week, RBI had asked all the scheduled commercial banks to follow the above-said criteria for a month. However, it limited the inward transaction in the first 30 days at USD 1,000 only and withdrawal at Rs 50,000, pending verification of address.The circular also said Pakistani students will need prior approval of the Reserve Bank to open a bank account. The circular said the measures are aimed at helping the foreign students in complying with the KYC norms, while opening a bank account due to non-availability of any proof of local address. Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
