Citi India Securities Services has become the first designated depository participant to register as the country's first foreign portfolio investor (FPI) under the newly-formed Sebi guidelines on this set of investors.
Recently, Sebi clubbed all foreign investments through foreign institutional investors (FIIS), qualified institutional investors (QFIs) under one umbrella framework called foreign portfolio investors (FIPs).
The FPI regime significantly eases access to the markets and allows a wide variety of previously ineligible investors to participate in the domestic market.
The issuance of the FPI registration certificate was facilitated by the National Securities Depository, Citi India said in a statement said.
"We have been continuously involved with the development of the securities markets here from being the first to enable securities lending and borrowing for our clients to facilitating the largest QFI investment to being the first custodian to offer e-voting facility for company oard meetings for our clients," Citi India Securities Services head Aashish Mishra said.