AMN
With an aim to improve ease of doing business and speeding up the onboarding of foreign investors, the Securities and Exchange Board of India has allowed Foreign Portfolio Investors – FPIs to submit digitally signed Powers of Attorney. In a circular issued today, SEBI said the Power of Attorney can now be digitally signed in accordance with the Information Technology Act, 2000. The move removes the need for the document to necessarily undergo physical notarisation, apostillization or consularization, which was required under the earlier framework.
The move is part of SEBI’s continued efforts to digitalise the FPI onboarding process. Over the years, the regulator has announced measures like introduction of Common Application Form (CAF) for the purpose of registration, PAN, bank and demat accounts, permitting Indian digital signatures for executing the Common Application Form and granting registration based on scanned copies.