How to Check Your Mutual Fund KYC Status?

It is quite common that nowadays you may go to invest in a mutual fund after a gap of few years and the fund house tells you that your KYC (know your client) verification has expire. The KYC is time bound and after the time period, it needs to be renewed. Also, the KYC can become idle for various reasons like not mapping Aadhar or other statutory stipulations of the government or of there has been no activity in that particular account for a long time. One way to overcome this problem is to check your KYC status in advance.

But what exactly is KYC and KYC Status?

Before investing in mutual funds, it mandatory to complete your KYC process. In fact, all mutual funds houses are mandatorily required to undertake KYC (Know Your Customer) compliance in pursuance of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. This is a very fundamental part of SEBI (Securities & Exchange Board of India) guidelines for investing in mutual funds. Let us understand the KYC process and its importance.

This process of KYC has been made mandatory by SEBI, the nodal market regulatory agency, so that the transactions are seamlessly linked to the investor. One thing people want to be sure is that there is an audit trail link between your tax filings and your mutual fund investments. The most basic document in KYC is the Income Tax Permanent Account Number (PAN). This PAN is the compulsory document towards Proof of Identity and also serves as a unique link for the stakeholders to map all transactions in the financial markets, be it with stockbrokers, depository participants or mutual funds with tax returns filing.

In addition, it must be known that the KYC compliance process is uniform across all financial markets. When the KYC is done, a KYC Identification Number (KIN) is created by CERSAI for individual customer and this can be quoted in future investments across the various products available in the financial markets.

What is meant by KYC compliant and KYC non-compliant

This is one of the most important questions that investors need to understand. When you are shown as KYC compliant during the KYC process, it essentially implies that the investor has submitted all required documents, which have also been duly accepted by the processing authority. Once the investor becomes KYC compliant, subsequent changes to the residential address, mobile number and email will have to be undertaken through KYC change request only. This will ensure centralized maintenance of data. The advantage here is that the investors can now change the address, mobile number, email details etc in all the mutual fund investments with just one single application. 

There is a small regulatory change in the KYC process that you need to be familiar with. Till the year 2012, certain specified categories of investors were exempt from providing the Income Tax Permanent Account Number (PAN). This was specifically applicable in the case of investors who invest up to Rs.50,000 per year per in mutual funds. This was for the sake of simplicity and such investors could provide approved proof of identity in lieu of PAN.

In the above case, till 2012, it was possible to get a PAN-exempt KYC reference number. Post 2012, any redemption of units requires you to be PAN KYC compliant as PAN number has to be quoted. There is no value limit and even if you redeem a very small amount, the PAN number has still got to be quoted. This made it mandatory for PAN exempt investors to update their KYC details since PAN was now mandatory to redeem their investments from mutual funds. Effectively, now PAN based KYC is mandatory for all, irrespective of size.

Indicative list of documents accepted as proof of identity

For PAN based KYC, the Following documents can be submitted by the investor as proof of identity.

At the time of the KYC, the investor must present any of the above documents photocopied and signed. They must carry originals for verifications.

• PAN card with photograph issued by the Income Tax Department. Since this is a mandatory requirement for KYC, many AMCs and registrars nowadays insist on an additional document as proof of identity, apart from the PAN card. As stated earlier, even if the annual investment is less than Rs.50,000, PAN KYC is still mandatory for redemption of these units.
• Aadhaar card, as downloaded from the website of UIDAI or as prepared in digital card format by the Income Tax Authority.
• Passport is also accepted as a proof of identity. For NRIs passport is mandatory document for KYC.
• Voter ID Card issued by the Election Commission.
• Driving License issued by a competent state level RTO.
• Any other recognized Identity Card with photo issued by Central Government / State Government / Statutory authorities/ Regulatory authorities/ Public Sector Undertakings.

Indicative list of documents accepted as proof of address

Here are the documents that can be submitted as proof of residence (any of these)

• Passport
• Voter ID Card
• Ration Card (digital ration card only)
• Registered Lease Agreements with 6 months validity
• Driving License issued by competent state RTO
• Utility bills like landline telephone, electricity, gas, etc. not more than three months old. Mobile bills are normally not accepted.
• Bank account statement/ passbook not more than three months old. KYC official may insist on this statement being signed by the bank manager with seal.
• Identity Card with photo and address issued by Central Government / State Government / Statutory authorities / Regulatory authorities / Public Sector Undertakings.

• CVL KRA
• NDML KRA
• DOTEX KRA
• CAMS KRA
• Karvy KRA

• In the case of non-PAN KYC (investment less than Rs.50,000 per year), the KYC may have completed with documents other than PAN. In such cases, the investor can check KYC status by entering name, date of birth and select PAN exempt category. Here also, the captcha code is needed to check the status. Once you validate the details, the KRA portal displays the date of initial KYC registration, date of modification of KYC records (if applicable) along with the checkbox of IPV verification. The IPV reflection checkbox reflects if the In-Person Verification is completed or not (applicable for online KYC).
• If your KYC is PAN compliant, the process is much simpler. The investor can then check the KYC status using PAN as the input. If the investor is KYC compliant, the investment process will proceed further; else, the investor will be redirected towards the KYC registration page.

HOW TO CHECK THE STATUS OF MUTUAL FUND KYC

Here is how an investor can go about check the status of their mutual fund KYC before investing, to avoid any last minute surprises. Investors can check the status of KYC compliance through the website of any of the 5 KYC Registration Agencies (KRAs) as under.

Now, here is how to check the KYC status. The investor can enter the PAN and verify that he / she is not a robot by inputting the captcha code. This way, they can check the KYC status. Here are the two ways to check the KYC status for two different types of investors.

Remember that fresh investments in mutual funds cannot be made if your KYC compliance is not fully done. It is always a good idea to first check the KYC status and updated it appropriately. Ideally, download the screenshot of KYC status and set a reminder to do the KYC renewal well in advance of expiry.