Amfi seeks views on customer identity number

The Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) has asked mutual funds to express their views on issuing the unique customer identification numbers under the Know Your Customer (KYC) norms, senior mutual fund officials said.

According to fund officials, Amfi has not appointed Central Depository Services (India) Ltd as the registrar for issuing customer identification numbers as some media reports said.

Amfi Chairman A P Kurian was not available for comment. A senior official from the industry said, "Amfi has not made any such recommendation and has now left the fund houses to decide how they want to carry on the CIN operations."

He further added that a circular has been issued, stating that fund houses can either set up an independent registering house or join any registering houses like CDSL or Computer Age Management Services.

Big fund houses such as UTI Mutual, Reliance Mutual, and Franklin Templeton Mutual are planning to set up their independent registration houses, according to industry officials.

UTI Mutual Fund plans to appoint UTI Technology Services Ltd as its registrar for issuing the identification number, said a senior fund house official.

The KYC norms implementation has now been deferred to Jan 1 instead of Nov , the official said.

Earlier, CRISIL MarketWire had reported that Amfi and Sebi officials were discussing modalities about issuing the customer identification number for mutual fund investors with over Rs 50,000 of investments.

Going forward, the KYC norms will be extended for all investments.