NRIs May Soon Update or Reverify KYC Without India Visit: SEBI Proposes Geo-Tagging in Securities Market Process [Read Circular]

In a move to ease compliance requirements for Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has proposed a relaxation in the "Know Your Customer (KYC) verification framework that will allow NRIs to update or reverify their KYC details without travelling to India.

The draft circular released by the regulator suggests that intermediaries may soon carry out re-KYC and modification of client details using geo-tagged digital verification methods.

The latest proposal seeks to amend the requirement in SEBI’s Master Circular on KYC dated October 12, 2023, which mandates that a client undergoing Video-based CustomerIdentification Process (V-CIP) must be located within India. The proposal has been made on the basis of the practical difficulties faced by NRIs in fulfilling this requirement.

Under the proposed framework, intermediaries will be required to maintain geo-location tagging and time-stamping during the KYC process. The GPS coordinates recorded at the time of verification must match the country specified in the client’s proof of address, even if that country is outside India. Furthermore, the verification systems must rightly ensure that IP addresses are not spoofed or masked to simulate location within India.

Another key guideline by SEBI requires the verification app to have features of random action initiation for client response to establish that the interactions are not pre-recorded.

The proposal comes to the benefit of SEBI-registered intermediaries such as stockbrokers, depository participants, portfolio managers, and mutual fund houses whose existing NRI clients wish to perform re-KYC or update their details.

However, the relaxation is not applicable to the initial onboarding of new clients which shall be conducted as per the existing KYC and in-person verification norms.

SEBI has invited stakeholders to submit their feedback on the draft circular by November 13, 2025, either via SEBI’s online consultation portal or email at consultationMIRSD@sebi.gov.in.

The reform is part of the regulator's continued efforts to simplify compliance without the confines of borders, albeit without compromising data integrity or client verification standards.

The digital verification and geo-tagging mechanisms would make India’s securities markets more accessible to its growing base of overseas investors while ensuring traceability of all KYC actions.

Once finalised, the circular will amend paragraph 51 of the existing Master KYC framework.

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