Govt to announce Central KYC Records Registry

The Reserve Bank today said an announcement by the government naming the entity, which will function as the Central KYC Records Registry (CKYCR), is expected shortly. CKYCR would receive, store, safeguard and retrieve the KYC records in digital form of a client, for which necessary amendments to the related rules have been made. The KYC (Know Your Customers) records received and stored by the CKYCR could be retrieved online by any reporting entity across the financial sector.

"A formal announcement by the government naming the entity which will function as the CKYCR is expected shortly," RBI said in a statement. It advised banks, payment system providers, system participants and prepaid payment instrument issuers, and others to "be in readiness to share the KYC data" with the CKYCR once the CKYCR is notified by the government. In order to facilitate collating and reporting the KYC data to the proposed CKYCR, RBI said the templates have been finalised in consultation with other regulators and CBDT (separate for individuals and legal entity).

In case of opening of 'Small Accounts', only personal details together with the photograph, signature/thumb impression and self-certification document would be obtained in the template. RBI further said the KYC data captured by the template also fulfill the reporting requirement under Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and Common Reporting Standards (CRS). "In order to enable reporting entities to comply with the FATCA and CRS reporting requirement, reporting entities are advised to take all necessary steps to ensure compliance with the reporting requirements within the timelines mentioned in the Rules and Guidance Note, expeditiously," it added.