Sebi firm on PAN, KYC of investors

New Delhi: Capital markets regulator Sebi on Tuesday issued clarifications on guidelines pertaining to processing investors' service requests by Registrars to an Issue and Share Transfer Agents (RTAs) and norms for furnishing PAN, KYC details and nomination.

This comes after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) received representations from the Registrars Association of India.

"From January 1, 2022, the RTAs shall not process any service requests or complaints received from the holder(s) / claimant(s), till PAN, KYC and nomination documents/details are received," Sebi said in a circular. With regard to nomination by holders of physical securities, Sebi said nomination form will be sent out to the security holder accounts in two phases. In the first phase, such form will be available for single account holders from January 1, 2022, onwards and joint account holders from April 1, 2022, onwards.

The RTA will make available the soft copy of the form on its website. In case of minor mismatch in signature of the securities holder as available in the folio of the RTA and the present signature, Sebi said the timeline to process the service request will commence after the notice period of 15 days. If the letter sent by the RTA returns undelivered, it will advise the investor to obtain the signature verification by the banker so as to process the request.

In case of an objection, the RTA, after removing the objection, will advise the investor to furnish signature verification by the banker along with any of the documents -- Aadhaar, valid passport driving license, PAN card -- among others. With regard to major mismatch in signature or if the signature card is not available, Sebi said the holder or claimant will have to furnish original cancelled cheque with name of the security holder printed on it or bank passbook or bank statement attested by the bank and banker's attestation of the signature. In case of mismatch in name, Sebi said the driving licence in smart card form, or copy of digital form will be accepted. "For all service requests, except transmission, copies of documents that are submitted in hard copy shall be processed by the RTA if the same is self-attested by the holder(s). RTA shall not insist on affidavits or attestation / notarization of documents," Sebi said.

On KYC details across all folios of the holder, maintained by the RTA, the regulator said that RTA will update the folios of the holder with the information on present address, bank details, e-mail ID and mobile number from the details available in the Client Master List (CML), if the holder or claimant provides the CML. Further, details which are already available with the RTA are to be overwritten on specific request received from the investor. In the normal course, only details which are not available for the physical folio in RTA database, will be updated from the demat account details.

Sebi further said securities in frozen folios will be eligible for any payment including dividend, interest or redemption payment only through electronic mode. Listed companies will have to ensure that intimation is sent to the holder that such payment is due and shall be made electronically upon complying with the certain requirements. RTAs will have to provide a certificate of compliance from a practising company secretary within 90 days from January 1 certifying the changes carried out, systems put in place to comply with the framework. Earlier, the timeline was 45 days.