RBI extends deadline for periodic KYC update till March 31

The Reserve Bank of India extended the deadline for periodic KYC update till March 31, 2022. It stated that the extension has been provided keeping in mind COVID-19 concerns. "In view of the prevalent uncertainty due to the new variant of Covid-19, the relaxation provided in the aforementioned circular is hereby extended till March 31, 2022," the central bank said on Thursday.

This extension comes after the RBI stated on May 5 that there would be no restriction on operations till December 31 of customer accounts whose KYC is due and pending due to COVID-19 related curbs. “Keeping in view the current COVID-19 related restrictions in various parts of the country, REs (regulated entities) are advised that in respect of the customer accounts where periodic updation of KYC is due and pending as on date, no restrictions on operations of such account shall be imposed till December 31, 2021, for this reason alone, unless warranted under instructions of any regulator/ enforcement agency/court of law, etc. Regulated entities are also advised to continue engaging with their customers for having their KYC updated in such cases,” it had stated.

The RBI in 2016 had directed regulated entities to follow certain customer identification procedures in terms of the provisions of Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 and Prevention of Money-Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005.

According to the directives no account shall be opened in anonymous or fictitious or a benami name. No account will be opened if a regulated entity is unable to apply proper customer due diligence (CDD) measures either due to non-cooperation of the customer or non-reliability of the documents/information furnished by the customer.

The RBI had directed mandatory information to be sought from customers for KYC purposes.

The deadline extension comes as several states have put in place certain curbs and restrictions amid rising cases of Omicron.

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