SWAGAT-FI to offer single licence, longer validity for trusted FPIs, says SEBI Chairman

SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said the regulator has introduced the Single Window Automatic and Generalised Access for Trusted Foreign Investors (SWAGAT-FI) framework to simplify market entry.

“SWAGAT-FI is a category of FIs where we have more trusted sovereign funds or publicly traded funds, insurance funds and FPIs,” Pandey said.

“They will be able to come to the SWAGAT-FI framework where we will have a much longer period of registration, and practically they would be able to do a lot of things

with one licence.”

The move follows SEBI’s formal rollout of the SWAGAT-FI framework last month to ease registration and compliance for foreign portfolio investors.

On deepening the corporate bond market, Pandey said structural enablers are being put in place.

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“There are various enablers required for development of capital bond market. We have taken a number of steps,” he said.

“Anybody coming into the Over-the-Counter (OTC) market… to discover the price, everyone has to come beyond a threshold to an electronic bidding platform.”

He added that SEBI has operationalised an Electronic Bidding Platform (EBP) for price discovery, a Request for Quote (RFQ) platform for two-way secondary market quotes, and online bond trading through Online Bond Platform Providers (OBPPs), “where retail can actually buy corporate bonds.”

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Details on corporate bond market measures were shared via an ANI post on X.