KYC stands for “Know Your Customer”. The Reserve Bank of India has made it mandatory for banks, financial institutions including Mutual Funds and other organisations to verify identity and address of all customers who carry out financial transactions with them. KYC is a process through which an institution verifies the identity and address of an individual. A customer has to submit his KYC before he starts investing in various instruments such as mutual funds, fixed deposits, bank accounts, etc. However, an individual has to do it only once when he starts investing for the first time.