Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Participates In SEBI's 38th Foundation Day Celebration In Mumbai; Bats For Simplification & Digitalisation Of KYC Processes - VIDEO

Mumbai: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday participated in the 38th Foundation Day celebrations of the Securities and Exchange Board Of India (SEBI), where she addressed key challenges and future priorities for India’s financial ecosystem. The event began with the traditional lighting of the ceremonial lamp, with Sitharaman joining other dignitaries on stage.

Visuals shared by PTI on X (formerly Twitter) showed the Finance Minister inaugurating the event and later addressing the gathering. A series of posts from the official X handle of the Finance Minister’s office highlighted key excerpts from her speech, outlining her expectations from SEBI and the broader financial sector.

During her address, Sitharaman stressed the urgent need to improve citizens’ experience with financial services, particularly focusing on the Know Your Customer (KYC) framework. She underscored the importance of creating a seamless, secure, and portable KYC system across the financial sector.

According to her, this matter has already been discussed at meetings of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC), and she called on SEBI to take the lead in standardising KYC norms while simplifying and digitising processes across the securities market.

She further emphasised that citizens should not be required to repeatedly undergo verification procedures across different financial platforms. Calling it a “shared responsibility,” Sitharaman urged all stakeholders to collaborate with a sense of urgency to ensure a unified and efficient verification system.

Turning her focus to capital markets, the Finance Minister highlighted the need to deepen India’s corporate bond market through structural reforms. She welcomed SEBI’s October 2025 consultation paper on enhancing retail participation in corporate bonds, noting that the regulator must act as a coordinating force to drive reforms.

Sitharaman also pointed out the need for greater standardisation in issuance documentation and stronger frameworks to boost secondary market liquidity. She stressed that close coordination between SEBI, the government, and other regulators would be essential to address overlapping challenges in the sector.

Additionally, she called for the development of a more robust credit enhancement architecture, aimed at expanding access to bond markets beyond top-rated issuers. This, she said, would enable a broader range of fundamentally sound enterprises to raise capital, ultimately strengthening the financial ecosystem.

Her remarks signal a continued push towards greater financial inclusion, improved regulatory coordination, and a more accessible and efficient market structure, with SEBI expected to play a central role in driving these reforms.

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