The Securities and Exchange Board of India, with an eye on attracting portfolio inflows into India, said on Tuesday it was cutting the registration time and fee for foreign institutional investors.
"We have simplified procedures for registration of FIIs. Secondly, what we have done is to bring down the time lag for registration," G N Bajpai, chairman of the market regulator, told Reuters during a trip to Hong Kong.
"Earlier it used to be three to four weeks. Now it is fourteen days," Bajpai said.
SEBI also reduced the registration fees for FIIs to $5,000 from $10,000. Asked when the changes come into effect, Bajpai said, "Immediately."
The market watchdog's chief also said that all securities traded on domestic bourses will switch to a shorter settlement cycle of T+2 days from April 2003.
Earlier this year, trading on Indian bourses moved to a T+3 basis, replacing the old five-day settlement cycle (T+5).