Sebi, RBI join hands to make onboarding easier for FPIs

Mumbai: Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey on Wednesday said the regulator is working with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to ease the onboarding process for foreign portfolio investors (FPIs).

"There is much more active inter-regulatory coordination... say for RBI and Sebi. We have been working very closely and we've been able to sort out many issues," Pandey said at an event. "For example, on FPI onboarding, Sebi and RBI are currently engaged very actively on ironing out many issues so that we are able to see very fast onboarding of FPIs."

In September 2025, Sebi launched the India Market Access portal for FPIs to enable the onboarding process faster, seamless and digital. Prior to this portal, FPIs had to coordinate with multiple regulators-including Sebi, RBI and Central Board of Direct Taxes - as well as depositories, custodians, exchanges, clearing corporations, banks and legal advisers. With no single source of information, the process made accessing India's markets cumbersome, particularly for first-time foreign investors.


Pandey said both regulators are also working on a framework for bond indices. "One of the points that we are working on is bond indices... how we can have bond indices trading on exchanges," the Sebi chairman said.