UIDAI suspends e-KYC facilities of 13 banks, AUAs after missing enrolment targets

For performing poor on enrolment and updating citizens Aadhaar information, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has suspended electronic know-your-customer (e-KYC) facilities for 13 banks and Aadhaar authentication agencies (AUA).

The facility was suspended last week after they (Banks and authentication agencies) failed to meets their target, said ET report quoting three people aware of the development. They were turning back people from their premises and were causing hardship and inconvenience to the people, a UIDAI official said.

These banks and AUAs were short of their targets despite repeated requests.

Banks whose service were suspended reportedly faced inconvenience offering their several financial services linked to authentication services. Meanwhile, after four banks including ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, RBL Bank and IDBI Bank gave assurance to take corrective measure in this regard, their facilities were restored.

Every day there are 3-3.5 crore instances of banks and other authentication agencies providing Aadhar enrolment and updating services.

Last year the Aadhaar CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey had notified that all banks, including private sector lenders, will have to provide Aadhaar enrolment and update facility to their customers. The customer need not go on a search for an Aadhaar enrolment centre. He also modified the Aadhaar regulation Section 12A of Aadhaar (Enrolment and Update) Regulations accordingly.

With it, Banks can digitally authenticate customers for multiple financial services by using the e-KYC facilities provided by UIDAI. Besides the NPCI also offers Aadhaar-enabled payments where banks need to identify customers through their biometrics for payments.

To provide extra security layer, last week Aadhaar made face recognition must for Aadhaar users to get a SIM card from coming September 15. It has set a target for Telecom Service Providers, to monthly do 10 per cent authentication using face verification. Failure to this would result in the penalty charge of around Rs 0.20 per transaction.