Personal Finance Changes You Should Be Aware Of At The Start Of 2023

A number of changes in rules that affect your personal finances kicked in at the start of 2023. Many of these are routine and operational, but it is important to be aware of them. Here’s a list:

All central government employees will now have to submit their requests for partial withdrawal through their associated nodal offices.

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority, or PFRDA, will have to submit supporting documents to nodal officers to substantiate the reasons for partial withdrawal.

Earlier, during the pandemic, this requirement had been done away with.

Banks are issuing new locker agreements to holders at the start of 2023.

The new agreements take into account a change in the guidelines issued by the central bank in August 2021. As per the rules, a bank is not liable to compensate a locker holder for damage to or loss of the contents of a locker on account of natural calamities or an act of God.

However, if a loss occurs due to incidents like fire, theft, dacoity, building collapse, or employee fraud, the bank is liable to pay the locker holder 100 times the prevailing annual rent for the locker.

SBI cards and HDFC Bank credit cards have revised their reward point systems. SBI Cards has slashed accrual reward points on online spending on Amazon to 5x reward points from 10x. Meanwhile, SBI Cards has allowed Cleartrip vouchers to be redeemed in a single transaction. However, SBI Cards will continue to accrue 10x Reward Points on online spends at Apollo 24X7, BookMyShow, Cleartrip, EazyDiner, Lenskart, and Netmeds.

HDFC Bank has also changed its reward points programme. The bank has said that rent payments will not earn reward points anymore, and redemption of reward points on other cards has been limited to certain segments.

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, or IRDAI, has said that all insurance policyholders will have to submit KYC details before signing up for new policies. The new rules came into force on Jan. 1, 2023. Earlier, sharing KYC details was voluntary when purchasing a policy.

It is mandatory for mutual fund investors to provide their bank account details in the application they submit before purchasing mutual fund limits, according to the Securities and Exchange Board of India. The applications will be rejected if a bank statement or passbook copy is submitted as proof of address for completing the KYC process.