Mutual fund advisors offering direct plans on their online platforms do not believe that curbing Aadhaar based e-KYC would hit their business in a big way. According to them, the absence of e-KYC may slow down the process a bit, but it is unlikely to have a lasting impact on their business.“E-KYC was very convenient way for new investors to start investing by completing the KYC procedure online in a few minutes. We do not see curbing Aadhaar based e-KYC a big hit to the industry,” says Sharad Singh, founder, CEO, invezta, an online platform to invest in direct mutual funds Aadhaar seeded e-KYC was banned after the Supreme Court asked private entities to stop insisting on Aadhaar details from customers. According to advisors, mutual fund registrars and transfer agents have informed them about stopping e-KYC services soon after the judgement.Some online advisors believe that it will slow down the process and it might discourage new investors from starting to invest in mutual funds. It could be an opportunity loss, they say.“It is a regressive step as with the advancement of technology investors want everything to happen at the click of a button,” says Kishorkumar Balpalli, founder, MyMoneySage.in. The OTP based Aadhaar e-KYC was so easy to get new investors on board, he adds.For OTP based e-KYC procedure, once investor would fill Aadhaar number, s/he would get an OTP on the registered mobile number. After the OTP is authenticated, the investor could start investing in mutual funds.Some optimistic online advisors say that with the e-KYC, investors could invest only upto Rs 50,000 per year, per AMC. So, in any case, investors had to go through the formal KYC procedure. “One good practise that we followed was immediately getting a formal KYC done as soon as we got any new investor who fulfilled e-KYC to start investing. So, over 80 per cent of our clients are already KYC compliant,” says Singh.Advisors believe the industry will soon figure out a better and quicker way to do eKYC. “ If it is about the investor’s data safety, we are hopeful that we will soon have other better verification procedure in place,” says Balpalli.“We, along with other peers are in talks with AMCs discussing other stronger authentication processes like facial recognition verification etc. We are hopeful that if Aadhaar-based authentication is expelled, the regulator will come up with some better way to do the process,” says Singh.