SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said the regulator and RBI are working to make foreign portfolio investor onboarding faster. They started moving to digital registration processes to remove physical paperwork hurdles. These changes aim to help institutional investors manage risks better while bringing more liquidity into the Indian bond markets.
In an effort to make capital entry friction-free for foreign portfolio investors, market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) are actively dismantling regulatory and operational hurdles, SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said, as reported by Moneycontrol.
To achieve this, SEBI and the central bank are overhauling the onboarding framework to ensure registration processes become fully digital, seamless, and expedited, Moneycontrol reported. Recent operational measures include facilitating digital signatures on submitted documentation in place of physical notarisation or apostillation requirements, alongside allowing overseas branches of Indian banks with correspondent relationships to certify documents directly.
Beyond portfolio investment onboarding, the regulatory push extends into broader market infrastructure. SEBI and the RBI are currently refining draft guidelines to enable derivatives linked to corporate bond indices — a step designed to help institutional investors hedge interest rate and credit risks while deepening liquidity in fixed-income secondary markets.