Section 15 in The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (Point of Presence) Regulations, 2018
15. Duties and responsibilities of point of presence.
(1)The point of presence shall perform the following duties through its service provider branches or offices, including offices where the entire business operations are carried out totally on online platform in accordance with the provisions of the Act, rules, regulations and any guidelines, directions and service standards issued by the Authority, for the purpose(I)Duties in relation to initial customer/subscriber interaction for pension schemes:(a)addressing queries of potential subscribers regarding pension schemes.(b)providing and displaying information, in accordance with the provisions of the scheme, as approved by the Authority, including information relating to application forms, offer documents or any other publicity material pertaining to pension schemes;(II)Duties in relation to subscriber registration:(a)receive the duly filled application form along with the Know Your Customer documentation, as may be applicable from time to time and/or any other mode as directed/specified by the authority and conduct customer due diligence procedures as required under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (17 of 2003) including the amendments thereof or any other law through effective use of Know Your Customer verification processes, laid down by the Authority for all subscribers;(b)the point of presence shall carry out checks, as specified in the service standards prescribed or as per the guidelines laid down by the Authority for the purpose;(c)the point of presence shall ensure maintenance and reporting of all transactions by subscribers in accordance with the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (17 of 2003) including amendments thereof and the rules framed thereunder from time to time, as may be applicable;(d)the point of presence is responsible for collecting and transmitting, the initial contribution at the time of opening of an individual pension account and subsequent contributions of subscribers made by them to the Trustee Bank;(e)the point of presence shall be responsible for delivering the subscriber registration form and supporting documents to the central recordkeeping agency or its representative approved by the Authority or shall share subscriber information as received from him, in any other mode or manner as approved by the Authority;(f)the point of presence shall transfer the contributions received from the subscriber to the National Pension System Trust account maintained with the Trustee Bank and upload the subscriber contribution files with the central recordkeeping agency within the time frame laid down under the service standards or as per the guidelines issued by the Authority for the purpose;(III)The following fund collection function shall be performed by the point of presence:-(a)the point of presence shall ensure that credible collection infrastructure is available to its underlying subscribers;(b)Every point of presence will open or have a collection account in the name of "Name of the PoP -Collection Account - National Pension System Trust" and such an account shall be a non-withdraw able account with an option to transfer the funds to NPS Trust account only. The authority to transfer the collection amount will reside with the point of presence.Provided that those aggregators or Atal Pension Yojna-service providers who are already registered and having bank accounts with different nomenclature and usage shall within a period of ninety days from notification of this regulation, comply with this condition(2)Servicing of subscriber requests such as the following:-(a)the point of presence shall be responsible for receiving and processing switching requests from subscribers among schemes and among pension fund;(b)the point of presence shall upload all requests from subscribers into the central recordkeeping agency system within the timelines laid down under any service standards or in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Authority for the purpose;(c)In respect of the subscriber withdrawal requests, the point of presence shall be responsible for receiving and processing, from subscribers, for withdrawal or exiting from pension schemes within the timelines laid down under the service level standards or any guidelines issued by the Authority under the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (Exit and Withdrawal under National Pension System) Regulations, 2015, as amended. The point of presence shall not collect from subscribers any extra charge for provision of such service, unless permitted by the Authority;(d)The Point of Presence shall be responsible for attending to subscriber's request for shift from one point of presence to another point of presence or to another point of presence service provider branch;(e)the point of presence shall be responsible for receiving and processing all subscriber requests.(f)the point of presence shall be responsible for receiving, uploading into centralized grievance management system and resolving the grievances pertaining to it..(g)the point of presence - sub entity shall adhere to the service standards or such standards as per the guidelines laid down by the Authority for the purpose;(3)The point of presence shall be responsible for the following, in the event of cancellation or suspension of registration by the Authority or where it ceases to be a point of presence:-(a)the point of presence shall transfer all the data or records or documents or money (uncleared funds and cleared funds that have not been transferred to the Trustee Bank) of subscribers to any other point of presence as may be authorized or appointed by Authority for providing services, at the time of termination. All such documents and records shall be transferred without any cost to the new point of presence or its successor, as may be determined by the Authority;(b)the point of presence, which has been directed to transfer such documents and records, shall extend all necessary cooperation and support to the successor points of presence;(c)on transfer of such documents and records, the transferor point of presence shall confirm to the transferee point of presence whether all such necessary documents and records have been transferred;(4)The point of presence registered for activities under sub-clause (iv) and/or (v) of regulation 3, may engage the services of other service providers or banking correspondents, for facilitating the distribution of pension schemes as facilitators, provided the usage of facilitators for the subject pension scheme is approved by the Authority and that the point of presence solely shall be liable for any acts of omission or commission by the facilitator in discharge of its functions.
