The Securities and Exchange Board of India is evaluating a new proposal to enable non-resident Indians and global Indian investors to complete digital know-your-customer checks from abroad, simplifying onboarding and broadening market participation for diaspora investors.
Sebi is weighing a proposal that would let non-resident Indians and other overseas Indians complete digital know-your-customer checks from abroad, a move that could make it easier for them to open accounts and invest in Indian securities without travelling to India. According to Business Standard, the plan is aimed at simplifying onboarding for persons resident outside India and widening access to the market for diaspora investors.
Under the draft framework, intermediaries would be allowed to accept digital KYC records and supporting documents from individual overseas clients in Financial Action Task Force-compliant countries. The regulator has said the current insistence on the investor being physically present in India during digital onboarding is a barrier, particularly for those who already hold Indian bank accounts, and it wants that restriction eased for securities-market transactions.
The consultation paper also sets out safeguards meant to reduce fraud. These include liveness checks, KYC carried out in the presence of authorised representatives, live capture of latitude and longitude to match the country listed in proof of address, and controls to block spoofed IP addresses. Sebi is also seeking to make KYC records portable, so that verified details can move more easily across intermediaries, and to allow self-declaration of current address in some cases where documents can be checked against official databases.
The move follows earlier steps by the regulator to loosen compliance rules for overseas Indians. Moneycontrol reported that Sebi relaxed re-KYC requirements in December 2025, allowing NRIs to complete the process digitally from abroad with safeguards such as time-stamping, geo-location tagging and random prompts. Business Standard also reported in July 2026 that the finance ministry and Sebi were preparing broader changes, including video-based KYC, Aadhaar-based authentication for NRIs with a UID number, recognition of foreign digital signatures and digital notarisation, as the government seeks to make Indian markets more accessible to diaspora and foreign investors.
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