A few months back, a private company employee in Pune lost Rs 12.8 lakh. How? He got calls from fraudsters posing as bank executives. They asked him to share PAN Card, Aadhaar Card, Debit Card details and OTPs in the name of updating KYC.
The victim shared OTPs with the fraudsters on four occasions for KYC updation but soon found that Rs 12.8 lakh was stolen from his account, according to a report.
The above is not a one-off incident. Similar cases have been witnessed across India in recent months.
For instance, an 83-year-old retired government official in Kolkata lost Rs 2.5 lakh to fraudsters posing as bank representatives for KYC updation online. Similarly, a resident in Udupi lost Rs 3.9 lakh after responding to an SMS for KYC update. Not only these, even popular actor Aftab Shivdasani lost Rs 1.5 lakh to KYC fraudsters in Mumbai
As the KYC update fraud continue to rise, there have been demands to have uniform KYC norms for all financial transactions to protect unsuspecting customers. It seems the Government has now taken this demand seriously.
Also Read: What is the penalty for missing minimum deposit in PPF, NPS, SSY accounts?
The Government is reportedly planning to implement uniform KYC (know-your-customer) norms for all types for financial transactions.
On Wednesday (22 February 2023), Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met financial sector regulators where one of the key items discussed was uniform KYC norms.
The Government is exploring the implementation of a mutual fund industry-type KYC system where repeated verification is not required.
Currently, bank and insurance customers have to go for repeated KYC verifications, which is an avoidable hassle. It also provide fraudsters an opportunity to dupe unsuspecting customers.
“prescribing uniform KYC norms, inter-usability of KYC records across the financial sector, and simplification and digitalisation of the KYC process” was one of the key agenda of the meeting, according to a statement issued after a meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council.
Experts believe that uniform KYC is the need of the hour to save regular customers.
No Timeline for Uniform KYC Yet
Readers need to note that currently the Government has not yet declared any timeline for the implementation of uniform KYC. The matter is still under discussion.
The finance minister also discussed harmful effects of unauthorized lending through online apps and measures to curb their spread during the meeting.
