PMLA 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.

How to unlink Aadhaar from a Zerodha account

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

Unlinking Aadhaar from a Zerodha account is not a single switch, and the word covers two very different requests. One is to stop any further Aadhaar authentication or document pull, which a customer can do by withdrawing the standing DigiLocker consent and revoking a shared Virtual ID. The other is to strip a completed Aadhaar eKYC out of an active account, which cannot be done, because know your customer verification is mandatory for every demat account and the identity record has to rest on some officially valid document. This guide separates the two, walks the steps that are actually available, and sets out what the Prevention of Money Laundering Act requires a broker to keep.

Opening a Zerodha account for a family member or friend

Fri, 19 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

You cannot open a Zerodha account for a family member or friend using your own registered mobile number and email ID. The rule is set by SEBI : every individual client must have unique contact details, a mobile number and email of their own, so that communications and reports from the exchanges, the depositories and the broker reach the actual account holder rather than a third party. There is one narrow, declared exception for a defined set of family members, and there are several legitimate routes for helping a relative invest, but operating someone else’s account or using your contact details for their account is not, in general, permitted. This article sets out the rule, the reasoning behind it, the family exception, the prohibition on third-party operation, and the lawful alternatives.