Officially Valid Documents for KYC: Full List and Rules (IIBF)

Almost every account-opening rejection at a branch counter comes down to one thing: the file does not contain a document the regulator actually recognises. The list of officially valid documents for KYC is short, closed and precise, and the IIBF KYC, AML and CFT paper tests it literally. If you can recite the six officially valid documents for KYC, the deemed-OVD fallback and the timelines attached to each, you have secured a reliable block of marks and a cleaner audit file.

📄 The Six Documents on the List

RBI's Master Direction on Know Your Customer, as amended, defines an officially valid document (OVD) exhaustively. Only six documents qualify in their own right:

1. Passport
2. Driving licence
3. Proof of possession of Aadhaar number
4. Voter's Identity Card issued by the Election Commission of India
5. Job card issued by NREGA, duly signed by an officer of the State Government
6. Letter issued by the National Population Register containing details of name and address

Two features of this list decide most exam questions. First, it is closed — a document that is not on it is not an OVD, however official it looks. Second, an OVD normally establishes both identity and address, which is why a single document usually completes the file.

The officially valid documents for KYC may be furnished as an equivalent e-document — an electronic document issued by the issuing authority with its valid digital signature, including documents pulled from the customer's digital document wallet. A physical photocopy, by contrast, must be a certified copy: an official of the bank has to compare the copy against the original and record that comparison. A photocopy accepted across the counter without that comparison is an audit finding waiting to happen.

If you are revising this alongside the underlying framework, the chapter on KYC specific requirements sets out the document rules customer type by customer type, and the current text of the Master Direction is always available on the RBI website.

💡 Exam Tip: Learn the six by their issuing authority, not by name. Examiners disguise options as "ration card", "employee ID card" or "bank passbook with photograph" — none of these is an OVD today, even though older study notes still list them.

🏠 When the OVD Carries No Current Address

A passport with a decade-old address is still a valid OVD for identity, but it does not evidence where the customer lives now. For exactly this situation the Master Direction allows a second, narrower category often called deemed OVDs, which are accepted only as proof of current address:

• Utility bills not more than two months old — electricity, telephone, post-paid mobile, piped gas or water bill.
• Property or municipal tax receipt.
• Pension or family pension payment orders issued to retired employees by government departments or public sector undertakings, if they contain the address.
• Letter of allotment of accommodation from an employer such as a State or Central Government department, statutory or regulatory body, public sector undertaking, scheduled commercial bank, financial institution or listed company, along with leave and licence agreements with such employers allotting official accommodation.

The concession is temporary. The customer must submit an OVD with the updated current address within three months of submitting the deemed-OVD document. Miss that, and the account file is deficient no matter how clean the opening was.

Note the two-month ceiling on utility bills is a rolling test applied on the date of submission, not on the date the branch gets around to scanning the file. Deemed OVDs are also address-only: they never substitute for identity, so an account opened on a tax receipt alone fails on the identity limb. This is where documentary rules connect to the wider statute — the chapter on legislation at national level explains why the PMLA and its rules, not internal policy, are the source of these obligations.

📊 OVD, PAN and Address Proof Compared

The commonest confusion in the officially valid documents for KYC topic is the status of PAN. PAN or Form 60 is mandatory under the PMLA rules, but it is not an OVD and never completes the file on its own.

Aadhaar carries an extra handling rule. Where the customer voluntarily submits a copy of the Aadhaar and the bank is not authorised to carry out authentication or offline verification, the bank must redact or black out the first eight digits of the number before it goes on record. That obligation sits on the receiving official, not on the customer.

The digital routes to the same outcome are examined separately: read Aadhaar based e-KYC for banks for the consent and authentication modes, and CKYC ID for how a verified document set is reused across institutions instead of being collected again.

⚠️ Common Mistake: Writing that PAN is an officially valid document. It is mandatory, it is verified, it is quoted on the form — and it is still not an OVD. Equally wrong: treating a bank passbook or a ration card as acceptable identity proof.

🧾 Special Cases the Branch Gets Wrong

Beyond the standard resident individual, four situations account for most documentary exceptions.

Change of name

Where the OVD is in a name different from the one the customer now uses, typically after marriage, the bank obtains the OVD together with a marriage certificate or a gazette notification evidencing the change. The old document is not rejected; it is supported.

Foreign nationals and foreign students

A foreign national who is not a resident furnishes a passport along with a valid visa or residence permit. A foreign student studying in India may open an account on the strength of the passport and visa, with local address proof to follow within the permitted window — a deliberate concession, because a newly arrived student cannot produce an Indian address document on day one.

Higher-risk customers

Where the customer profile is higher risk, the document set is the floor rather than the ceiling: the bank additionally establishes source of funds and ownership. The overlap with politically exposed persons in KYC is direct, since the identity documents are identical but the approval and monitoring layered on top are not.

Documents that expire

An expired passport or driving licence is not a valid OVD. Branches routinely miss this in files opened years earlier, which is why the officially valid documents for KYC must be checked for validity at the point of every refresh, not just at onboarding. For a sense of how heavily this area is weighted, review the KYC exam pattern before your final revision round.

🧠 Practice MCQs: Officially Valid Documents for KYC

Want chapter-wise mock tests with 100+ MCQs? Start practising free →

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Master the officially valid documents for KYC as a closed list plus one fallback with a three-month clock, and this topic becomes free marks in every attempt. Round out the compliance block with the cyber-side rules on customer liability in unauthorised transactions, then take a timed paper from the CAIIB and certification course library to confirm the recall holds under pressure.