Know Your Customers Guidelines Rural & Regulations Of RBI
Objectives of KYC Norms
(a) Banking operations are susceptible to the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing. In order to arrest money laundering, where banks are mostly used in the process, it is imperative that they know their customers well.
(b) On combating financing of terrorism, RBI has specified certain standards based on which our Bank has formulated a policy on identification and acceptance of customers to have a business relationship with us. Our branches are required to prepare and maintain documentation on their customer relationships and transactions to meet the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and other laws and regulations.
(c) RBI has issued the KYC guidelines under Section 35 (A) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 and any contravention of the same will attract penalties under the relevant provisions of the Act. Thus, the Bank has to be fully compliant with the provisions of the KYC procedures.
(d) The due diligence expected under KYC involves going into the purpose and reasons for opening an account, anticipated turnover in the account, sources of wealth (net worth) of the person opening the account and sources of funds flowing into the account.
Note
The officer responsible for opening of accounts should scrutinize the originals of the photo ID/address documents and satisfy himself / herself about the prima facie authenticity of the same. Photocopies of these documents should be authenticated by the officer and kept along with the account opening form.