NPS KYC norms update by PFRDA; digital onboarding enabled for NRIs, OCIs

Digital onboarding enabled for NRIs, OCIs as PFRDA updates NPS KYC norms

Digital onboarding has been made available to non-resident Indians (NRIs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) who wish to join the National Pension System (NPS). The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has issued new Know Your Customer (KYC) guidelines that lay out how NRIs and OCIs can complete the process online without being physically present in India.

The PFRDA has also made it clear that the NRI and OCI subscribers to the NPS won’t have the option to invest in a Tier II account. NPS offers two accounts: Tier I and Tier II. Tier I is a compulsory pension account that comes with specific withdrawal restrictions, whereas Tier II is a voluntary savings account offering greater flexibility for withdrawals. Tier-II accounts don’t have an upper limit on investment. You need to have an active NPS Tier-I account to invest on Tier-II.

The guidelines is an amendment to the master circular issued by PFRDA on “Guidelines on Know Your Customer, Anti Money Laundering, Combating the Financing of Terrorism.” In addition to the provisions, the guidelines lay down the KYC process to be followed by the NRI and OCI at PFRDA registered point of presence (PoPs), or intermediaries, to obtain and verify the proof of identity and proof of address at the time of subscribing to the NPS.

Digital onboarding for the NRI, OCI subscribers

PFRDA maintains that the digital onboarding of applications ensures live detection, randomness  checks, and anti-spoofing, or anti–deep fake measures, and that the interaction is live, tamper-proof and not pre-recorded.

Documents for NRI to subscribe into NPS

An NRI subscriber whose passport contains both the permanent and current address as foreign addresses, the same shall be accepted as valid proof of address.

If the passport of an NRI subscriber contains both the permanent and current address as Indian, the same shall be accepted as valid proof of address. However, a separate document evidencing the current overseas address is required.

Documents for OCI to subscribe into NPS

The passport submitted as proof of identity containing the current overseas address is acceptable proof of address.

In the case of documents presented by OCI that do not contain the details of address, any documents issued by the foreign government department of foreign jurisdictions as well as a letter issued by the Foreign Embassy or Mission in India shall be accepted as proof of address.

Furthermore, self attestation is must as well as attested by either Indian embassy, overseas consulate general, notary public, court magistrate, judge, or authorised officials of overseas branches of scheduled commercial banks registered in India.