Even as the central government and the finance ministry are busy announcing several relaxations across industries in order to address the slowing down of the economy, the country’s central bank has come with its own announcement. This relates to the 18-month time allowed to digital wallets to complete full KYC of their customers before allowing them full bouquet of services. This period has been extended to 24 months.
The way it works is that the prepaid instruments or PPIs are allowed in the hands of the operators with minimum KYC. If you wish to operate a e-wallet with say, the Paytm Payment Bank, you will have to provide the service provider with certain minimum IDs online. It could be the Aadhaar card or other any valid proof. The service will be started, but with limited scope in terms of the facilities being allowed to be used within the account. The bank has to carry out a full KYC which may include a proper verification of your address etc. RBI had allowed a period of 18 months to complete this process from minimum KYC to full KYC compliance. This period has ow been extended to 24 months. The regulator has said this period will not be further expanded.
RBI has set out detailed instructions on how the limited KYC situation operates. For example, the prepaid instruments of up to R 10,000 can be allowed to be operated. This is a kind of one time limit with the overall limit of Rs 100,000 fixed for the year. For instance, if a prepaid credit card is being issued, its value cannot be more than Rs 10,000 on initial release and any recharge cannot be more than this amount and the monthly limit is also the same at Rs 10,000.
The minimum KYC has been defined by the bank verifying the mobile number of the account operator through an OTP verification of the number and sharing one of the valid IDs.
Now with the extended period of 24 months, if the account holder’s full KYC verification is not completed, the PPIs will have to stop. RBI has also instructed that the same person cannot try to open another account with the same mobile number.
There are instructions for closure of the accounts as well.