Sebi moves to ensure ease of FPI onboarding

Markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is stepping up efforts to ease the onboarding of foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) and constituted a cell for consultations with offshore investors and custodians, said whole-time member Ananth Narayan.

- KHUSHBOO TIWARI

Sebi is also working to make regulations more "light-touch" for FPIs that invest exclusively in government securities or are sovereign funds. The regulator is trying to make the registration process easier for such FPIs, the Sebi official said at the CII Financing 3.0 Summit here.

These initiatives come at a time when Indian bonds are being included in global indices, helping draw new investors.

"We trust them because they are regulated, and we know what they are doing. For these kinds of FPIs where we believe we don't require much information, we are looking at ways to make life easier for people who have transparent funds. For example, using an FPI licence, is it possible to do many other things besides just investing in some listed space? Can we review the KYC periodicity and make life a lot more relaxed in terms of having to make disclosures," said Narayan.