Latest news with #Directions
Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
RBI amends KYC rules to allow face-to-face, video and OTP-based onboarding for customers
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday introduced a series of amendments to its Know Your Customer (KYC) norms aimed at making customer onboarding faster, more flexible, and accessible across both digital and physical channels. Under the RBI (KYC) (Amendment) Directions, 2025, the central bank has laid out simplified procedures for onboarding customers using Aadhaar-based e-KYC, video KYC, and DigiLocker documents . The move is intended to support inclusive banking and ease the process for first-time users, especially those joining through government schemes like DBT, EBT, and PMJDY. Three key modes of customer onboarding: 1. Face-to-face onboarding Customers can open accounts using Aadhaar biometric-based e-KYC. If the current address differs from the Aadhaar address, a simple self-declaration is sufficient. Digital KYC is also permitted in in-person setups. 2. Non-face-to-face onboarding (NFTF) Customers can be onboarded remotely using Aadhaar OTP-based e-KYC, subject to specific conditions. Banks can also accept DigiLocker documents, e-documents, and certified paper copies for verification. Accounts opened through NFTF must complete full Customer Due Diligence (CDD) within one year. 3. Video-based Customer Identification Process (V-CIP) V-CIP enables live, secure, consent-based video interaction with a bank official for identity verification. It is considered equivalent to face-to-face onboarding and is valid for both account opening and KYC updates. Additional measures to streamline onboarding: Central KYC Registry (CKYCR) integration: Banks must use the CKYCR to fetch a customer's existing KYC record with consent, avoiding the need for repeated document submissions. Business Correspondents (BCs): BCs are now authorised to assist in onboarding and KYC updates, increasing reach in rural and remote areas. Empathetic reactivation: Banks have been advised to take a lenient view while reactivating accounts opened under welfare schemes. The RBI has also asked banks to conduct special onboarding and KYC update camps and run targeted awareness campaigns in rural and semi-urban areas to bring more users into the formal banking system. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Promoções imperdíveis de voos baratos Voos | Anúncios de Pesquisa Saiba Mais Undo
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Business Standard
19-05-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
RBI proposes new norms for RE investments in AIFs, seeks public feedback
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday released revised draft guidelines for investments by regulated entities (REs) in Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), aimed at tightening oversight and preventing potential misuse of the investment route. 'On a review, it is observed that the regulatory measures undertaken by the Reserve Bank have brought financial discipline among the REs regarding their investment in AIFs,' the RBI said in a press release. The central bank also acknowledged that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has issued its own guidelines: 'Sebi has also issued guidelines requiring inter alia specific due diligence with respect to investors and investments of the AIFs, to prevent facilitation of circumvention of regulatory frameworks,' the RBI stated. As part of the revised framework, the RBI has proposed a cap of 10 per cent on the contribution of a single RE to any AIF scheme, while all REs collectively cannot invest more than 15 per cent in a single scheme. Investments by an RE up to five per cent of a scheme's corpus will not face any additional restrictions. However, if an RE's investment exceeds five per cent and the AIF has downstream debt exposure to a borrower linked to the RE—excluding equity shares, compulsorily convertible preference shares, and compulsorily convertible debentures—the RE will have to make a 100 per cent provision for its proportionate exposure. The RBI may exempt certain AIFs from these rules, in consultation with the government, if they are set up for strategic purposes. The revised guidelines will apply prospectively, while existing investments and commitments will continue under current regulations. The RBI has invited public and stakeholder feedback on the draft Directions until 8 June 2025. Comments can be submitted through the 'Connect 2 Regulate' section on the RBI's website. In a circular issued in December 2023, the RBI had barred REs from investing in any AIF scheme that had downstream investments—directly or indirectly—in companies to which the RE had a loan or investment exposure in the preceding 12 months. If an AIF later made such an investment, the RE was required to exit the fund within 30 days, failing which it had to make 100 per cent provisioning for its exposure. The circular also mandated full capital deduction for investments in subordinated units of AIFs with a priority distribution model. In another circular in March 2024, the RBI refined these provisions further, stating that downstream investments would exclude equity shares but include all other instruments, such as hybrids. It also clarified that provisioning would apply only to the portion of the RE's investment linked to the debtor company exposure and that capital deductions for subordinated units would apply even to sponsor units. Investments made via intermediaries such as mutual funds or fund-of-funds were excluded from the scope of the restrictions.
The National
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
How being lost at sea inspired Mohammed Kazem's digital work at Art Dubai
When Mohammed Kazem was in his twenties, he had an experience that would have a profound impact on his artistic output – he was lost in open waters. This was in the mid-1990s. The Emirati artist had gone fishing with his friends when he slipped overboard. Unfortunately, no one noticed him fall. The sound of the engine was too loud and no one heard his cries for help. Kazem remained alone, floating in the Gulf with no land or boat in sight. 'They lost me for more than half an hour in the deep sea,' Kazem says. 'I couldn't see the city. The horizon surrounded me across 360 degrees. You can't tell where you are, or which way to go.' Luckily for Kazem, one of his friends had a GPS, which he used to retrace the boat's trip and eventually found the young artist. The experience, nevertheless, left a mark on Kazem. Not so much fear of the sea, but of an appreciation of its grandness and its carelessness for human borders. It also instilled in him a fascination for GPS co-ordinates. Kazem has produced several works that have been informed by latitudes and longitudes, most notably with his series, Directions. The most recent iteration of the series is a digital installation that he is presenting at this year's Art Dubai. The work, titled Directions (Merging), is a commission by Julius Baer. The Swiss wealth management company has been a partner at Art Dubai since 2015. It has commissioned artists, including Refik Anadol in 2023 and Krista Kim in 2024, to present digital installations at the annual fair. Kazem's Directions (Merging) is the company's third major digital commission. It puts a novel twist on the artist's use of GPS co-ordinates by incorporating animations of water. The work will be featured in a purpose-built room, similar to previous presentations by Julius Baer at Art Dubai. The walls will be filled with co-ordinates from shorelines across the globe, while a video backdrop of rolling waves will stream across. Dubai's co-ordinates, meanwhile, will occupy the centre of the space. Directions (Merging) touches upon resource exchange and the interconnectedness in the modern world, while also reflecting on Dubai's evolution as a global hub. 'Dubai is a meeting point for people coming from different countries,' Kazem says. 'We are living in the country with 200 nationalities. And Art Dubai is a global event. The co-ordinates, similarly, come from all over the world.' Kazem says the installation went through several revisions before a final version was decided on. For the animation, he worked with Zlatan Filipovic, a mixed-media artist and associate professor at the American University of Sharjah. The duo studied the layout of the space, considering the colour palette of the work and how many sensory details they could incorporate in the installation. 'We thought, at first, to use the sound of the waves. But then decided we don't need it because it would be too much for that space,' Kazem says. Another change was the colour of the co-ordinates themselves. While teaser images have shown the latitudes and longitudes in black, Kazem says they ultimately decided to present them in white instead, for better contrast. Kazem says the work he is presenting at Art Dubai can be further developed to fit other contexts. He daydreams of a sprawling piece displayed in an outdoor public setting, although that would present new challenges. 'It can be outdoors,' he says. 'It can be on an LED billboard. Of course, we have to study the climate. With indoor projects, we don't have issues. There's no dust, no humidity, no water.' For Kazem, GPS co-ordinates have become an artistic tool, similar to paint. With them, he says he can capture abstract aspects, such as water currents and the tide. He has spent years immersing himself in the medium, using it in different contexts and across materials. His singular take on the concept was highlighted during the 2013 Venice Biennale in a solo exhibition by the National Pavilion UAE. Walking on Water was, at the time, a culmination of Kazem's Directions series. It featured a chamber projecting images and sounds of a dark and turbulent sea. It also featured photographs of a 2002 project, where Kazem would toss wooden panels imprinted with GPS co-ordinates into the open waters, mimicking the terrifying experience of his youth. Also in 2013, he presented another iteration from his Directions series. This time, at the old campus of NYU Abu Dhabi. The artist mounted vinyls with co-ordinates on the windows of the university. The sunlight streaming into the space cast the co-ordinates on the floor. That same year, he presented a project at Sharjah's Maraya Art Centre, showing co-ordinates in blue across several walls in a dark space. His co-ordinates have made use of unexpected materials in other projects. With chalk, he scribbled co-ordinates on stone blocks in a project in Bodh Gaya in India. In 2019, he presented a work in Abu Dhabi's Al Hosn Festival that showed wooden cutouts of co-ordinates floating in a body of water. As a pioneer in the UAE's contemporary art scene, Kazem says he has been encouraged and inspired by the rapid growth of the country, as well as its taste for the visual arts. 'We now have museums such as the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and Louvre Abu Dhabi,' he says. 'We have art fairs, like Art Dubai and Abu Dhabi Art. We have the Sharjah Biennial and The March Meeting. We are receiving a lot of international curators.' It was impossible to imagine the level of growth, Kazem says, when he was in his early years as an artist, working out of Hassan Sharif's office in Satwa and mingling with other creatives from the Emirates Fine Arts Society. 'At the time, people were not so accepting of contemporary art. Not just here, but across the Arab region,' he says. Higher education, he says, has been paramount to helping develop the artistic landscape. 'We have artists, designers, architects, art historians, writers, we need them all,' he says. 'The new generation is doing well. Platforms like the one we have in Venice are giving them great opportunities. To the point where artists can do their work full time. So many great things are happening.'
