India’s markets regulator, SEBI, announces a series of comprehensive measures aimed at simplifying entry procedures for foreign and domestic investors, including a new digital onboarding framework and enhanced market liquidity initiatives.
India’s markets regulator is preparing a broader push to make the country’s capital markets easier to enter and more efficient to use, with new measures aimed at foreign investors, the corporate bond market and newer investment vehicles, according to Tuhin Kanta Pandey, chair of the Securities and Exchange Board of India. Speaking at the JP Morgan India Conference in Mumbai on Tuesday, Pandey said the regulator is trying to remove friction at each stage of the investment process, from registration through to trading and settlement.
A key part of that effort is the SWAGAT-FI framework, which SEBI introduced earlier this year for trusted, low-risk foreign investors. Moneycontrol reported that the scheme came into effect on 1 June 2026 and was designed to simplify registration and compliance for foreign portfolio investors and foreign venture capital investors, while allowing eligible entities to use a single application for both categories. The framework is aimed at institutions such as sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, central banks, regulated insurers and broad-based funds, and SEBI says about 205 foreign portfolio investors have already used it.
Pandey also pointed to plans to make onboarding easier for individual foreign investors living outside India. SEBI has proposed digital customer verification for people resident abroad, including non-resident Indians, overseas citizens of India and foreign nationals, with intermediaries able to use video-based identity checks. The regulator is also considering wider use of existing customer information across SEBI-registered entities, a move intended to reduce duplication and speed up the entry process for investors in jurisdictions that meet anti-money-laundering standards.
Beyond foreign inflows, SEBI is looking at changes that could deepen domestic market activity. Pandey said the regulator is consulting on net settlement for mutual fund schemes in the cash market and reviewing concerns over derivatives settlement prices on expiry days. He added that SEBI wants to strengthen securities lending and borrowing, support hedging and arbitrage activity and improve price discovery. In the corporate bond market, the regulator is working on a market-making framework to boost liquidity and access to the repo market, while also considering fixed income channel partners, broader distribution through regulated online bond platforms and a credit risk-o-meter to help investors better judge debt risk. Pandey said SEBI is also planning to widen foreign portfolio investors’ access to non-agricultural commodity derivatives and may introduce depository receipts against units of real estate investment trusts and infrastructure investment trusts.
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