PTI mumbai

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday asked regulators and departments to expedite the refund of unclaimed deposits to rightful owners and streamline the KYC process. Chairing the 29th meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) here, she emphasised that interest of common citizens to be kept in mind and expeditiously refund the claims of the rightful claimants.

She exhorted the Council to take proactive steps to ensure that citizens should have a seamless experience with respect to KYC processes across the financial sector, the finance ministry said in a statement. There is a need for common KYC norms, simplification and digitalisation of the KYC process including digital onboarding for NRIs including PIOs and OCIs, in the Indian securities market.

The minister urged the regulators and departments to expedite the process of refund to rightful owners of unclaimed amounts by holding special district-level camps.

This drive is to be conducted in coordination with RBI, SEBI, MCA, PFRDA and IRDA along with banks, pension agencies, insurance companies etc, it said. The unclaimed amounts comprise deposits in banks; unclaimed shares and dividends are managed by IEPFA; and unclaimed insurance and pension funds are with IRDAI and PFRDA respectively, it said.