The Unique Identification Authority of India offers e-KYC (electronic-Know Your Customer) based on Aadhaar Card. This can be used by Aadhaar holders to establish and authenticate their identity on their consent. The e-KYC or Electronic Know Your Customer allows authentication of a resident Indian. Thus, resident Indians can use it for banking companies for services such as a bank account, fixed deposit, loan, investment, etc. as an address proof electronically.
If an individual has done the Aadhaar based e-KYC then he/she need not physically submit their Aadhaar Card, but electronically pass the information to the concerned institution. The existing system by the UIDAI has provisions for Aadhaar authentication and verification offline and online through e-KYC.
The authentication process of Aadhaar based e-KYC means the procedure by which demographic information, biometric information of Aadhaar, its number, along with information of the card holder is submitted to the CIDR (Central Identities Data Depository). This is done for verification of information that verifies its correctness. The purpose for authentication is to allow the residents to provide a proof of identity to banking companies or a service provider to supply services and access to its benefits.
Below-mentioned are the advantages of Aadhaar Card authentication and e-KYC services:
Aadhaar paperless offline e-KYC does away with the requirement for the resident to submit photo copy of the Aadhaar letter. Rather, the resident can download the KYC XML and submit it to the agency or institution he/she has to provide the KYC proof. The details of KYC are in the machine-readable XML. This is signed digitally by the UIDAI. It allows the institution to verify the authenticity of details. It can thereby also detect tampering, if any. The institution can also authenticate the resident or user through Face/OTP authentication procedure.
When downloading the offline e-KYC Aadhaar Card data, the following fields are present in the XML:
Through a ‘Share Phrase’, the data of Aadhaar paperless offline e-KYC is encrypted. At the time of downloading, the Share Phrase is provided to the Aadhaar number holder. This information has to be shared with institutions to read the data of KYC.
As a card holder, the offline e-KYC process ensures a convenient and quick way to provide KYC information for authentication purpose. You can download the KYC’s XML file and submit it to the relevant institution or agency. The UIDAI verifies the XML and is tamper-proof. Thus, the data shared is further secured and safe.
The advantages of Aadhaar e-KYC offline are mentioned below:
If a person already has an Aadhaar card, he/she can access the paperless e-KYC data as per the below-given steps:
After downloading the offline e-KYC date, the card holder can share the same with the institution either digitally or physically. To share high resolution copies, it is best to share the data through a PDF or XML file. The ‘Share Phrase’ should be submitted to the institution at this time so that the data is encrypted.