Central Know Your Customer

CKYC Full Form in English, letter by letter

CKYC is Central Know Your Customer, India's shared KYC record that gives you a 14-digit number usable across banks and funds.

CKYC Full Form in Indian Languages

Opening a bank account, buying a mutual fund or taking a policy usually means another set of photocopies, unless you can quote your CKYC number, issued under the Central Know Your Customer system. Its name is given below in six Indian languages.

What CKYC is and who runs it

Central Know Your Customer is a national system for storing verified customer identity records so that they can be reused. It is run by CERSAI, the Central Registry of Securitisation Asset Reconstruction and Security Interest of India, as the operator of the Central KYC Records Registry for the government. Instead of every institution collecting and filing its own copies, one verified record is uploaded once and can be fetched by other regulated institutions.

The legal base is the Prevention of Money Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005, as amended to provide for a central registry. Regulators such as the RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and PFRDA direct the entities they regulate to upload and use records. The registry began operating in 2016, and uploading records of new customers became a routine requirement from early 2017.

When your KYC is uploaded, you are issued a unique 14-digit CKYC number, also called the KYC Identification Number. That number, not a bundle of copies, is what you quote at another bank or fund house.

Where you will be asked for it

Banks and NBFCs use it when you open a savings, current or deposit account or apply for credit. Mutual fund houses, life and general insurers, stock brokers, depositories and pension fund intermediaries also ask for it before they let you invest or buy a policy.

It attaches to you as a customer, not to a product. The first time a regulated institution takes you on, it completes your KYC and uploads the record. The next institution can look up the same record instead of starting from zero. This is why a second account often opens faster than the first.

Older customers may be asked to update details. A bank may request fresh documents if the old record is incomplete, the photograph is unclear or the address has changed. That is routine periodic updating, not a sign that your account is in trouble.

How to complete CKYC

In person, you carry the originals of an officially valid document. Passport, driving licence, voter ID, Aadhaar (proof of possession), NREGA job card and a letter issued by the National Population Register are accepted for this purpose. Along with it you provide your PAN or Form 60 and a recent photograph, and the institution verifies the copies against the originals.

Remotely, Aadhaar-based e-KYC with an OTP, or a video KYC in which an official checks your face and documents live, can replace the branch visit. Mutual fund investors can also submit forms through registrar offices and KYC points.

There is no fee for getting a CKYC number. An agent who asks you for money to get one should be treated with suspicion.

What the record holds and what it does not

The record holds your name, father's or spouse's name, date of birth, address, contact details, photograph, PAN, the identity documents you submitted and the date of verification. A change of address or mobile number is passed to the registry through the institution that holds your record, so ask that institution to update it.

CKYC does not approve your account, set a credit limit or give you a credit score. It is not linked to your CIBIL score. Each institution still runs its own risk checks and can ask for extra papers or decline an application.

Common confusions

The CKYC number is not your account number, not the customer ID of one bank and not the registration number CERSAI also keeps for security interests created by lenders. It identifies only your KYC record.

Aadhaar e-KYC and CKYC work together but are not the same. Aadhaar e-KYC authenticates you against Aadhaar data for one purpose. CKYC is the stored record, which holds the fuller set of documents. Simplified procedures with capped limits exist for some low-value accounts.

Name mismatches cause most of the trouble. If your name is spelt one way on your PAN and another way on your passport or bank form, a retrieval or a fresh upload can fail. Date of birth and address differences do the same. Fix the error at the source document first, then ask the institution to correct the CKYC record.

Ask your bank or fund house for your CKYC number, note it down with your PAN, and keep your mobile number and address on the record up to date. A current record is what saves you from submitting the same papers again.

CKYC Full Form: Common Questions