One nation, one KYC need of the hour: Nirmala Sitharaman

MUMBAI: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Saturday urged markets regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India to take the lead in implementing the govt-initiated 'one nation, one KYC' process.

For long, the govt has been working on a unified know your client (KYC) system to eliminate repetition across services regulated by banks, mutual funds, stocks, bonds, insurance and pensions. However, the system is yet to be fully operational, causing inconvenience as users must complete KYC separately for different services. While Sebi has moved ahead, other regulators are seen to be lagging.

"We need a seamless, secure, and portable KYC experience across the financial sector," she said. "Sebi must help drive common KYC norms and simplification and digitalisation of KYC processes across the Indian securities market," she added at Sebi's 38th Foundation Day event.

"Sebi has the scale of investor participation, depth of digital infrastructure, and institutional credibility among peer regulators to take the lead. It is the shared responsibility of all stakeholders to ensure no citizen has to repeat the same verification journey across multiple financial products and platforms. We must work collectively with urgency," she said.



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