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WordsKnow your customer

KYC

Short for know your customer: the check a bank makes to identify you before it opens an account or issues a card, and RBI’s card rules apply it to every card. For an individual, the bank takes your PAN or Form 60, and proof of identity and address: proof of your Aadhaar number, or another officially valid document such as a passport or voter ID.

It can be done in person, with Aadhaar authentication, from your record at the Central KYC Records Registry, or on a video call, which is VKYC. RBI’s rules also have banks update it from time to time, and let them ask for other documents, such as ones about your work and finances.

Where this comes from

  1. RBI, Know Your Customer Directions, 2025Paragraphs 5(1)(xiv), 23, 26 and 42, as updated 18 September 2026
  2. RBI, Credit Cards and Debit Cards: Issuance and Conduct Directions, 2025Paragraph 90, as updated 1 October 2026

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How the KYC actually wentThe document they asked for that you didn't expect

More words like it

  • VKYC

    Video KYC

    The identity check, done live on a video call with a bank official instead of in person, and recorded.

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  • ITR

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    The return you file with the Income Tax Department each year. Banks take it as proof of income when there's no payslip.

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  • Internal policy

    The reason given for a no

    A bank's own rules for who gets a card, and the reason many rejection messages give.

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  • Pre-approved

    An offer made before you apply

    An offer based on what a bank knows about you. It isn't a promise, and people here write about when it fell through.

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What happened to members, not financial advice. Offers change, so check with the bank. Terms of use