New Delhi: Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority (PFRDA), in its endeavor to make the subscriber registration, the exit process and
processing other service requests seamless and subscriber friendly, has been constantly
introducing new methods of subscriber authentication such as OTP/ eSign based onboarding,
Offline Aadhaar based on boarding, third party reliance for KYC, e-nomination, e – exit for eNPS
Subscribers etc.
While a lot of NPS services have been moved online including onboarding of new
subscribers and their servicing, the physical presence of NPS Subscribers is required at POPs
(Points of Presence) for in-person verification (IPV) to complete the process of exit and some
other allied services. Compulsory physical presence is posing challenges for subscribers as well
as PoPs/Nodal officers which lead to subscriber’s grievances and delays the process of
withdrawal and exit.
To overcome the above challenges and in the interest of NPS Subscribers, PFRDA has
now permitted its intermediaries to use of Video based Customer Identification Process (VCIP),
in addition to the existing options, in order to further facilitate on-boarding, withdrawals, exit and
for processing of other related service requests of NPS Subscribers.
In order to ensure that the intermediaries are not additionally burdened for introducing
this facility, the intermediaries which apart from being registered with PFRDA, are registered
with other Financial Sector Regulators also, are allowed to follow the VCIP guidelines issued by
those regulators for performing for NPS related activities also. However, the intermediaries
which are solely registered and regulated by PFRDA, will follow the guidelines issued by
PFRDA for performing VCIP.
PFRDA has vide Circular No. PFRDA/2020/46/SUP-CRA/18 dated 06 th Oct 2020
('Video based Customer Identification Process (VCIP) for NPS’ has issued guidelines giving
detailed process flow for implementing the facility. Central Record Keeping Agencies (CRAs)
and Points of Presence (PoPs) registered with PFRDA have been advised to build an online
platform for the same at the earliest.
