The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) is aiming to create a seamless cross-border investing experience by piloting an unassisted Aadhaar face authentication system for NRIs in the UAE.

This initiative would enable an NRI in the UAE to open a fund manager’s app without a paper form, physical visit or assisted verification. A task, amounting to an investment of several thousand dollars, can thus be completed with just Aadhaar-based face authentication.

The pilot is currently being conducted in the UAE for people – primarily NRIs – who have Aadhaar.

IFSCA chairman K Rajaraman said, “The objective is to solve one of the biggest friction points in cross-border financial services — getting customers sitting overseas digitally onboarded while meeting KYC requirements. This initiative builds on IFSCA’s efforts to create a completely digital onboarding and documentation framework for overseas investors. Last year, the regulator notified a protocol for assisted video customer identification (VCIP) for NRIs. The next step is to test whether face authentication can allow eligible customers to complete the process themselves, without human assistance. The pilot is also meant to test the technology in an international environment.”

The system is expected to be in place by the end of the current financial year. – editor@nrifocus.com