Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) said on Monday that the e-KYC (electronic know-your-customer) services operationalised by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will be accepted as valid KYC process for insurance.
Earlier, Irda had informed insurers that a letter issued by the UIDAI containing details such as name, address and Aadhaar number was a valid document for customer identification.
UIDAI had operationalised e-KYC services recently. “The acceptability of these services for KYC purposes under the Prevention of Money-laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005, was discussed with the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance and operational issues were taken up with the insurers,” Irda said in a circular. It pointed out that the finance ministry has said e-KYC services may be accepted as a valid process for KYC verification under the Prevention of Money-Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005. In the light of this, “it has been decided that e-KYC services of UIDAI is acceptable for KYC verification subject to specific and express consent of the customer to access his/her data through UIDAI system”, Irda noted.
The regulator added in cases where e-KYC services are availed for KYC verification, certification requirements under earlier guidelines of anti-money laundering shall be deemed to be complied with.