KYC norms need to be simple, cost effective: Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant

India needs to re-evaluate the existing know your customer (KYC) norms to make it more simple and cost effective as we strive to become a role model for the world through quantum jump in financial integration, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said.
“Availability of products and services, ability to customise and offering of localised products vernacular languages will lead to greater financial integration,” Kant said while addressing the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) seminar on Fintech and Digitisation.

Kant is of the view that India needs low cost, high volume products, interoperability of accounts and flow based lending to give a push to financial integration. “Closed ecosystems with barriers if exit will be detrimental to financial integration,”he warned.

Stating that India records more than three billion digital transactions in a month, Kant said, “We are targeting a billion trnascations in a day and pushing for it.” Currently, the highest number of transactions are done for payments, billings and merchant payments.

“We are in the midst of challenging times because of Covid-19 and going forward we’ll be increasingly doing faceless transactions,” Kant said. Citing the benefits of digital payments, Kant said India directly transfers Rs 11.1 lakh crore under 426 schemes through 56 ministries through DBT with not a single leakage in the system, thus improving efficiency and preventing leakages.

According to Kant, as India’s fintech market matures there will be a huge opportunity for existing as well as new fintech companies to adapt and grow. “There is a huge opportunity for India to emerge as fintech’s globe of choice,” he concluded.