SEBI has relaxed Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements for Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) and certain foreign nationals, allowing eligible clients to complete onboarding digitally without physically visiting India. The revised framework is announced as taking effect from Dec 3 and applies through SEBI-registered intermediaries that can accept electronically submitted KYC information and supporting documents.
Under the updated rules, people residing outside India (PROIs) are not required to be present in India during digital onboarding if they meet specified eligibility conditions. SEBI also directs KYC Registration Agencies (KRAs) to mark individual customer details as validated after verification against official databases. KYC records remain portable across intermediaries, including where all attributes are not independently validated by the receiving entity. Intermediaries can rely on KYC completed by another SEBI-registered entity or by institutions regulated by other financial sector regulators, based on data held in KRAs or the central registry.
Intermediaries are still responsible for regulatory compliance and must conduct enhanced due diligence according to individual risk assessments, including collecting documents such as PAN and passport and using the overseas residential address as the current address.
