Big relief to e-wallet companies as RBI extends KYC compliance norms by six months

Mumbai: In a relief to e-wallet companies like Paytm, MobiKwik, Flipkar PhonePe and Amazon Pay, the Reserve Bank of India has extended the deadline for compliance with Know Your Customer (KYC) norms, by six months.

The earlier deadline for for prepaid payment instrument (PPI) issuers was February 28.

"Based on requests received from various stakeholders to increase the above timeline on account of difficulties in undertaking Aadhaar e-KYC and time necessary to put in place alternative systems for completing the KYC process, it has been decided to allow PPI issuers additional time of six months for completion of the KYC process," the RBI said in a statement.

PPIs are payment instruments that facilitate purchase of goods and services, including financial services, remittance facilities, etc., against the value stored on such instruments.

PPIs are used extensively for remittances currently, which offers a very lucrative business opportunity for agencies involved in carrying out remittances.

As per the laws, a customer can fulfil the KYC requirements by submitting any document like the Aadhaar number, voter ID, among others.