(6). Supervising Officers should make a point of checking at random the specimen signatures uploaded to Signature Verification System (SVS) in FINACLE CBS Application at the time of inspection. Head and Sub Postmasters should examine the Signature Verification System in FINACLE CBS Application periodically to see that the signatures are uploaded for all the accounts opened in their office and ensure that withdrawals in accounts of other SOL IDs from Savings Bank accounts are not allowed in the absence of specimen signature in SVS.

(a) If a person wishing to open an account attends the post office he/she should be requested to fill in SB-AOF for opening of account and pay-in-slip (SB-103). In case he is an illiterate person, the post office staff may guide him or his/her messenger in filling in the SB-AOF. The depositor should be asked to fill KYC Form (SB-KYC) and also submit Know Your Customer (KYC) documents as prescribed in Rule 11 above (to be submitted only once at the time of CIF creation and updation).

(b) The SB-AOF and KYC Form (SB-KYC) (if submitted) should be scrutinized by the Counter Assistant to see that all the mandatory fields marked as * are correctly and legibly filled in. He/She will also check the entries on the foil and the counterfoil of the pay-in-slip to ensure that the entries in both parts agree in all respects. The following points should be particularly looked into:

(i) The depositor has given his/her full name and address to enable the department to distinguish him/her from another person of the same name.

(ii) The depositor has filled the field of last name as it is mandatory in Finacle CBS for opening an account. If depositor is not having last name, he/she should be asked to fill first name as last name.

(iii) The depositor has filled his/her date of birth as it is mandatory to fill the same in Finacle CBS. If the date and month of birth of any individual is not known, the 1st of July of the year of birth will be taken as the date of birth. If only the year and month are known, 16th of the month should be taken as the date of birth. In case of minor birth certificate is mandatory.

(iv) The entries in the application form regarding nomination have been filled in legibly and witness has signed at the relevant place. Self-attested, Identity and Address proof of witness has been attached.

Note: Provided that from 18.12.2019 two witnesses shall be taken at the time of registration or variation of nomination in case the account holder is illiterate, and no witness shall be required in case of literate depositor for the purpose.

(v) In the case of an illiterate, blind and physically handicapped applicant wishing to avail the facility of operating his/her account through a literate agent, letter in prescribed form (Form - 12) along with the self-attested Identity and Address proof of the agent and witness should be obtained on the form (Form – 12). The thumb impression of the depositor should be attested by a person known to the Post Office. The words “through agent” should be got noted on the application form and the specimen signature of the agent should be obtained on the application form in the presence of the Supervisor who should attest it.

(vi) If depositor has applied in prescribed form (SB-ATM1) for ATM card or e-Banking or Mobile banking on PO Savings Account, relevant fields in the SB-AOF and SB-ATM1 have been properly filled and e-mail ID as well as Mobile number have been furnished.

(vii) Pasting of photo in SB-AOF and KYC Form (if submitted) in the relevant field is mandatory. Counter PA has to ensure that photo is horizontally pasted and the same should not go beyond the space provided in the form.

(viii) In case of Joint Accounts, separate photo of each depositor should be pasted at the relevant space.

Note 1: The signature in the application form, if it is in English, must be in running hand and not in block letters.

Note 2: - Printers ink which is supplied for use with metal stamps and also Magenta ink can be used for taking thumb mark of the illiterate depositors who desire to open an account in the Post Office Savings Bank on application for opening of account.

Note 3: - A depositor whether literate or illiterate who has lost both of his/her hands can operate the account through the toe impression of his/her foot.

(ix) If a person wishing to open an account is a minor, and he/she desires to open account in his/her own name and operate it, he/she must himself submit the application form signed by him/her. No minor, however, has the right to open an account in his/her own name, unless and until he/she has attained the age of ten (10) years on the date of opening of account.

(x) When a person other than the Superintendent of a Mental Hospital or the Guardian applies for opening an account on behalf of a person of unsound mind, he should be requested to produce the order of a court appointing him as the person of unsound mind’s manger or guardian.

(xi) (1) A depositor who suffers from any physical infirmity or is with differently-abled conditions, making him incapable of operating the account himself, may at the time of opening of account or subsequently, operate, including withdraw, his/her account through any literate individual whom he authorises for this purpose:

Provided that such authorisation, along with the extent of authorisation, shall be made in writing by the depositor to the authorised officer of the Accounts Office, together with attested specimen signature and photograph of authorised individual.

(2) Authorisation given under sub-rule (1) may be withdrawn or varied at any time by the depositor by submitting a fresh authorization.

(xii) The normal SB-AOF should be used and after the entry of the name of the person opening the account, the name of the person of unsound mind should also be noted in the SB-

AOF.

(xiii) The counter PA will hand over all the documents to Supervisor for scrutiny who will verify the genuineness of KYC documents from the original documents produced, tally photograph either with the person or with photo ID proof submitted, name and address written in the application with the KYC documents and allow for opening of account by placing his/her dated signatures on the application form and return the same to the Counter PA.

Before creation of any new CIF, the Counter PA should first check if the customer is an existing depositor or a new customer. For doing this check, following procedure should be followed:

(i). The Counter PA has to use CDEDUP menu option in FINACLE CBS Software to do a De-duplication check by using the relevant function in the menu. This search will have following fields:

First Name

Middle Name

*Last Name

Passport Number

PAN Number

Aadhaar Number (if provided)

*Mobile Number

Driver’s License Number

Date of Birth

Preferred Phone Number

Postal code

Any combination of the above parameters can be entered to perform a de-duplication search.

(ii). The matching records for the given search criteria will be displayed by the system. The Counter PA will validate the records displayed by the system to check if the match is valid. If the match is confirmed to be valid, then he/she will search Customer Information File (CIF) Number and see the KYC status of that CIF. If status is KYC Document submitted and name and address mentioned in SB-AOF tallied with that of mentioned in the CIF, then there is no need to obtain fresh KYC documents. Otherwise, these documents will be taken as usual and User should modify the CIF based on fresh documents by following the CIF modification process and submit to Supervisor for verification. Fresh KYC documents should be filed in the office and KYC Form (SB-KYC) should be sent to CPC for further process.

(iii). If no matching record is found then the Counter PA will perform the following actions: Enter the data into the CBS system through the CCRC menu option. CBS system will not allow customer creation unless all the mandatory fields are not filled. User should enter details of KYC documents in the relevant fields and change KYC Documents to “KYC Documents Submitted”

(iv). The Counter PA should write CIF ID number generated by the CBS System on SB-AOF and SB-KYC i.e. KYC Form and submit the same along with other related documents to the Supervisor for verification.

(v). Supervisor should verify all the documents with the data entered by Counter PA through his/her own Login ID and Password using same menu and after satisfying him/herself, will click on submit button. The CIF ID generated will become active in CBS system.

(i). If the account opened is on behalf of a minor, two CIF IDs are to be created – one for the minor and another for the guardian. The following additional entry will be printed on page 1 of the passbook.

“To be operated through minor's guardian during minority of the depositor. The minor will attain majority on.............” Date to be calculated from the date of minor's birth as specified in the birth certificate.

In case the account is operated by the minor himself, the date of birth and the date of attainment of majority will be printed on page 1 of the passbook.

(ii). In the case of an account opened by an illiterate and physically handicapped depositor to be operated through a literate agent, the following entry should be made in red ink on page 1 of the passbook: Through the agent Shri” ......................” (Name of the agent). The letter of authority obtained from the depositor should be filed in a separate guard file, after noting the account number on it.

Note: Provision for the date stamp and signature of the Branch, Sub and Head Postmaster has been made in the Account Opening Form (SB-AOF). If an account is opened at branch post office, the date stamp of Branch Office, Account Office and Head Office will be impressed

on the form. The Branch Postmaster, the Sub Postmaster, where branch post office is in account with a sub post office, and the Head Postmaster will affix their signature in the place provided. The date stamp of the sub post office and the head post office will be impressed,  and the form will be signed by the Sub Postmaster and the Head Postmaster.

In case of Savings, Sukanya Samriddhi and PPF Accounts, account can be funded only after verification of account opening by Supervisor. Once account is verified by the Supervisor, Counter PA should fund the savings account through CTM or CXFER and SSA/PPF through CPDTM, submit SB-103 to Supervisor for verification. Transaction ID generated by FINACLE CBS shall be written on the upper right-hand corner of SB-103 in red ink prefixed by scheme name e.g SB, SSA, PPF etc. Supervisor has to verify the transaction in FINACLE CBS using same menu with his/her own Login ID and once verification is done, account will be funded, and balance can be seen using HACLI menu.

At the day end, all Account opening forms (SB-AOFs) along with KYC documents should be placed in the relevant Ring Guard Files of A4 size and SB-KYC i.e., KYC Forms (if taken) should be dispatched to concerned CPC in a service registered packet duly sealed for scanning and uploading of signature and photograph of the depositor(s).

After opening and funding the account, Counter PA should print the Passbook through Passbook Printer using the Menu HPBP and hand over to the customer. No manual entries should be made in the passbook in the office where Passbook Printer is supplied. In case passbook printer having technical issue account statement of those transactions which  are not printed in the passbook may be provided to the depositor free of cost and passbook may be updated when passbook printer is in order and no manual entries are to be done in passbook where passbook printer is provided.

Note: Head of the Circle may authorize any CBS post office to utilise the services of GDS/MTS for updation and printing of passbook using HPBP menu. For the purpose, Circle may send request for creation of such users to CEPT.

(1). After receiving the KYC Forms from the PO, Registered Packet will be examined to see that all the seals are intact and there is no tampering to the packet. Packet should be opened carefully and number of Forms received should be matched with the list attached with the bundle. The Forms will then be transferred to “Scanning Section”. In Scanning Section, Photograph and signature portion of the form will be scanned/cropped and then uploaded into

Finacle CBS Application without any delay.

(2). In-Charge CPC should take necessary action for disposal of KYC forms as per preservation period prescribed

(i) Physical KYC Forms at CPC(CBS):- "One year after scanning and 'uploading"

(ii) Scanned images of KYC forms at CPC (CBS) :' "Three years after scanning and uploading"

(iii) KYC forms to be destroyed by shredding method in the presence of In-Charge, CPC and necessary records are to be maintained at CPC for destruction of KYC Forms.

(3). The In-Charge CPC shall keep watch on the post offices those are not sending KYC forms on regular basis and report to the Division Concerned about this irregularity.