Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has relaxed Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements for Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) and foreign nationals, allowing them to complete digital onboarding while residing overseas, provided they are in countries compliant with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) framework.
In a circular issued on Wednesday, the market regulator removed the requirement for clients to be physically present in India for digital KYC. Intermediaries can now accept digital submission of KYC information and supporting documents from individual persons resident outside India (PROIs). The revised norms will come into effect from December 3, 2026.
The move is aimed at simplifying onboarding for overseas investors and reducing repetitive documentation. SEBI has also made KYC records portable across intermediaries, even if some individual attributes have not been validated.
Under the revised framework, KYC Registration Agencies (KRAs) will tag individual attributes as 'validated' if they have been verified against official or source databases. Intermediaries can also rely on KYC undertaken by another SEBI-registered intermediary, based on records obtained from KRAs, or by entities regulated by other financial sector regulators, based on records available with the Central KYC Records Registry (CKYCRR).
These include the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) and International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA).