It has been made mandatory for mutual fund houses to obtain their customers’ Aadhaar number and link the same to their respective accounts. This follows a recent amendment in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Rules, 2017.
Registrar and transfer (R&T) agent, CAMS (Computer Age Management Services), has launched an online facility to link mutual fund investments to Aadhaar. The message on their website says, “As per recent amendments to Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Rules, 2017, Financial Institutions like Mutual Funds are mandated to obtain Aadhaar Number from their customers and link the same to the respective accounts.”
Other R&T agents such as Karvy and Sundaram BNP Paribas Fund Services are yet to begin this service. Franklin Templeton Mutual Funds use Franklin Templeton Asset Management as an in-house R&T.
Currently, the deadline of 31 December has set for mutual funds to link all of their customers’ Aadhaars. As this linking has been made compulsory, the fund houses are bound to start asking their customers to provide the required information. Clearly, CAMS’ online facility is an effort in this direction.
Here’s how to link your mutual fund investments to your Aadhaar on CAMS:
Step 1:
On the CAMS website, click on ‘Investor Services’ on the top panel and then click on ‘Link your Aadhaar’ on the left panel.
Alternatively, you can visit the following link directly:
https://www.camsonline.com/InvestorServices/COL_Aadhar.aspx
( After copying the above url, please remove text after .aspx)
Step 2:
The following page appears
Here, the moment you enter your registered email and PAN, the page auto-populates with the names of fund houses (as below) where you would be holding the mutual fund units. If there are few fund houses missing, you need to undergo this process with the other R& T agents as well. ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, HDFC Mutual Fund, and Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund all serviced by CAMS. Reliance Mutual Fund and UTI Mutual Fund serviced by Karvy.
Step 3:
Click on the fund houses, preferably all, enter your registered mobile number and submit it to get an OTP (one-time password).
Step 4:
Enter OTP
Step 5:
You will get an acknowledgment like the one shown below.
One will also receive the acknowledgment on one’s email from the UDAI as below
The legal stand
By linking MF investments with Aadhaar on the R& T platform, one is authorising the agent (in this case, CAMS), for seeding one’s Aadhaar number based on PAN or any other combination in all the accounts maintained with asset management companies for KYC (know-your-customer) and other related due diligence purposes in line with PMLA requirements and UIDAI guidelines.
Further, one also authorises the agent for downloading and sharing the Aadhaar and demographic information (including any updated information) with CKYCR (Central KYC Registry), other KYC agencies (SEBI-registered KRAs or KYC registration agents) wherever applicable and warranted by regulators or the PMLA.
Also, it’s a declaration that this consent will remain valid for updating existing and new folios serviced by CAMS.
Who are registrar and transfer (R&T) agents
Registrar and transfer (R&T) agents are the trusts or institutions that register and maintain detailed records of the transactions of investors for the convenience of mutual fund houses. They act as an intermediary to take care of the back-end processes of a mutual fund, processing all financial(such as buying, selling or switching units) and non-financial transactions such as a change in bank details, change in contact details or address. Also, investors can get information about various investments in different schemes of different fund houses at a single place from the R&T agent.
What the PMLA rules say
As per the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Rules, 2017, here is what the financial institutions have been asked to do, due to which they are making investors comply with the rules.
” Where the client is an individual, who is eligible to be enrolled for an Aadhaar number, he shall submit to the reporting entity- (a) Aadhaar number and (b) PAN or Form No. 60.
” Where an Aadhaar number has not been assigned to a client, the client shall furnish proof of application of enrolment for Aadhaar. And if PAN is not submitted, one certified copy of an ‘officially valid document’ has to be submitted.
” Where the client is an individual, who is not eligible to be enrolled for an Aadhaar number, he shall for the purpose of sub-rule (1), submit to the reporting entity, his PAN or Form No. 60 as defined in the Income-tax Rules, 1962:
” Provided that if the client does not submit PAN, he shall submit one certified copy of an ‘officially valid document’ containing details of his identity and address, one recent photograph and other similar documents including in respect of the nature or business and financial status of the client as may be required by the reporting entity.
If you have mutual fund schemes which are serviced by R&T agents other than CAMS, in a few days they too are expected to launch online facilities for seeding of schemes with Aadhaar.
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