The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) is piloting unassisted Aadhaar face authentication across four international jurisdictions to enable paperless digital onboarding for overseas Indians. According to reports from Business Standard, IFSCA Chairman K Rajaraman announced this initiative at the Global Fintech Fest on Friday, positioning it as a key step toward making GIFT City a platform for global wealth management.
Under the pilot program, an NRI with an Aadhaar footprint can complete the onboarding process without assistance, allowing an investor overseas to digitally open an account and invest. As reported by Business Standard, Chairman Rajaraman emphasized that the entire digital onboarding process and documentation should be paperless, without any courier or wet signatures required. This initiative addresses the key challenge of cross-border KYC and payments that have historically limited NRI investment capabilities.
IFSCA has directed banks operating in the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) to establish wealth management units, with several major banks already beginning setup. According to Business Standard, HSBC and State Bank of India have already begun establishing such units, catering to high-net-worth individuals (HNIs) with global operations and family offices located overseas. The push is specifically aimed at tapping the large pool of overseas Indians who remitted more than $140 billion to India last year.
The banking ecosystem at GIFT IFSC is experiencing significant expansion, with total assets of banks projected to rise to around $200 billion by the end of the financial year from more than $143 billion currently. As reported by Business Standard, there are 42 banks operating in the IFSC, including 21 foreign banks. Chairman Rajaraman noted that the IFSC is increasingly seeing financing for large assets, with Indian banks participating in loan syndicates and taking shares of financing for assets such as aircraft and ships.
Recent developments show significant progress in digital infrastructure for overseas investors, with platforms like Rupeeflo's nuvanta demonstrating the practical implementation of these pilot initiatives. According to Rupeeflo, their platform has onboarded more than 25,000 global investors across 60-plus countries and is being used by more than 20 financial institutions. The platform supports multiple investment products including NRE and NRO accounts, FCNR deposits, DEMAT onboarding, and FPI pipelines, positioning itself as a comprehensive technology solution for cross-border financial services.
