Sebi eases KYC norms, standardises process for online verification of documents

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has issued a few notifications standardising the digital KYC (Know Your Client) norms. In its recent release, the regulator said that intermediaries don’t need to verify the identity and address documents that clients submit, physically. Instead, intermediaries can use Digilocker to verify the driving license, PAN or Aadhaar.

Many brokers and mutual fund platforms have been doing digital KYC. But each adopted practice that they thought were the best. “Intermediaries like stockbrokers have been doing digital KYC. But there was a confusion of what can be done and what cannot be done. The regulator took feedback from intermediaries on their current practice and issued norms standardising how the KYC should be done,” said Venu Madhav, chief operating officer, Zerodha, an online broking platform.