29 insurance cos, 9 securities-related entities can collect Aadhaar for KYC

The finance ministry has allowed 29 insurance companies and 9 securities entities to collect Aadhaar for the purpose of know your customer (KYC), a move aimed at checking money laundering and routing investments into shell companies.

Finance Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey said that the two notifications issued in this regard by the Ministry of Finance “to allow these entities to use Aadhaar authentication services under Aadhaar Act with necessary standard security and privacy measures would help these entities to perform in real time, do e-KYC and would also reduce their cost of transaction”.

“This would also be beneficial to the customers or the investors, especially the small and retail investors, as they need not submit physical papers or documents for KYC,” Pandey, who is also the Revenue Secretary, said.