Aadhaar-based verification: 22 financial companies can verify customers using Aadhaar

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The government has allowed 22 financial companies, including Amazon Pay (India) and Hero FinCorp, to do so. AadhaarClient-based authentication.

According to the latest notification issued by the Ministry of Finance, entities reporting under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) will be able to verify the identity of customers and the details of beneficial owners using their Aadhaar numbers.

They include companies like Godrej Finance, Amazon Pay (India) Pvt Ltd, Aditya Birla Housing Finance, Tata Motors Finance Solution, IIFL Finance and Mahindra Rural Housing Finance Ltd.

Sandeep Gongunwala, partner at Nangia Andersen LLP, said that while Aadhaar authentication to clients is available as one of the verification methods for banking companies, the PMLA stipulates that Aadhaar authentication can also be authorized by reporting entities other than banking companies as they may be notified by the central government. .

“Accordingly, CG has notified a list of 22 financial institutions/brokers, who are permitted to use Aadhaar authentication to verify the identity of customers/beneficial owners,” said Jhunjhunwala.

Other verification methods provided for in the Money Laundering Act include offline verification under the Aadhaar Act, the use of passport and any other officially valid identification document or methods as may be notified by the Central Government, and the Customer has a voluntary option to do so. Choose the verification method.

Also read: What is Aadhaar – AePS enabled payment system

“In order to protect identity information and authentication records of individuals, the Money Laundering Act prohibits reporting entities from storing Aadhaar number or basic customer biometric information, as Aadhaar is used to verify identity,” Jhunjhunwala added.

UIDAI Aadhaar issuance body recently launched a feature in it Residents can verify their email and mobile number associated with Aadhaar.