Enhanced Due Diligence on WebNotes

Clients of Special Category (CSC)

Sat, 20 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Clients of Special Category (CSC) is a higher-risk client classification under India’s anti-money-laundering framework, defined in the SEBI Master Circular on AML/CFT obligations of securities market intermediaries dated 6 June 2024, that obliges a broker such as Zerodha to run enhanced due diligence on the client, the practical trigger being a mandatory income-proof and source-of-funds check at account opening or re-KYC . The classification flows from the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 and the Prevention of Money-Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005, which require every regulated intermediary to grade clients by money-laundering risk and apply heavier scrutiny to the riskier ones.

FATF lists and your Zerodha account

Sat, 20 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The FATF lists are the two registers of high-risk countries maintained by the Financial Action Task Force, the inter-governmental body that sets the global standards for anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing, and they decide whether a non-resident or foreign national can open or hold a Zerodha account: a resident of a country on the FATF black list cannot open an account, and a resident of a country on the FATF grey list can open one only after Zerodha’s compliance team approves it. India is a FATF member and gives the lists legal force through the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 , the PML Rules 2005, and the SEBI Master Circular on AML/CFT obligations dated 6 June 2024.