What is KYC, and how do I complete it?

You cannot invest in an Indian mutual fund without completing KYC. It is a legal requirement, not a formality any intermediary can waive, and it is the step where most first-time investors get stuck.

The good news: you do it once.

What KYC is

Know Your Customer is an identity verification mandated across SEBI-regulated products. Once your record is in place, it is portable — you do not repeat it for every fund house, every broker or every platform.

It exists to make it hard to move anonymous money through the financial system. That is worth understanding, because it explains why the process is stricter than feels convenient.

What you need

• PAN — essential, and it must be linked to your Aadhaar
• An Officially Valid Document (OVD) for identity and address — Aadhaar, passport, voter ID or driving licence
• A recent photograph
• Your signature
• Bank account details, for the account investments will be debited from and redeemed into

The rule that changed in 2026

This is the part where older guides are now out of date.

Since 1 April 2026, KYC validation relies on Aadhaar and PAN authentication. In practice this means the mobile number linked to your Aadhaar must be reachable, because verification runs through an OTP sent to it.

Separately, investors whose KYC had been completed without an Officially Valid Document were required to revalidate by 31 March 2026. If you completed your KYC years ago using a document that is no longer accepted, your record may now be restricted even though nothing changed on your side.

If you have not checked your status recently, check it before you plan an investment — not on the day you want to make one.

CKYC and KRAs — what is the difference?

These two terms cause more confusion than anything else in the process.

CKYC is the government's Central KYC registry, run by CERSAI. It issues you a 14-digit KIN (KYC Identification Number) that works across banks, insurers and mutual funds.

A KRA is a KYC Registration Agency — a SEBI-authorised body holding KYC records for the securities market specifically. CAMS, KFintech, CVL, NSDL and NSE each operate one.

You do not choose between them. You complete the process once, and both systems end up updated. The distinction matters mainly when you are checking your status, because you look it up on a KRA site.

Checking your status

Any KRA website lets you check your KYC status free, using your PAN. You will see one of:

• Validated — fully compliant, you can transact
• Registered — on record but not Aadhaar-validated; some restrictions may apply
• On-Hold — transactions generally blocked until resolved
• Rejected — needs redoing

If your status says On-Hold

It is fixable, and it is usually one of a small number of causes: the record was created without an OVD, your PAN and Aadhaar are not linked, or your mobile or email needs re-verification.

The fix is to redo the KYC with a valid OVD through any KRA or fund house. Tell us what your status screen says and we will tell you which of these applies and exactly what to submit — this is the single most common thing we help people with, and it is much faster with someone who has seen it before.

If you live abroad

The process differs for NRI investors: overseas address proof, the bank account type (NRE or NRO), and for some countries additional tax declarations. A few fund houses do not accept investments from certain jurisdictions at all.

Please ask before starting rather than working from a general guide — the details vary enough that a generic answer is likely to be wrong for your situation.

Rules in this area have changed more than once recently. Everything above was checked against official sources on the date shown at the top of this article, but verify anything time-sensitive before acting on it.