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Banks Need Seamless Digital Onboarding to Attract NRI Deposits

More Indians living abroad are putting money into Indian bank deposits.

Their deposits increased by 43% in 2024.

Banks must check customers’ identities, documents and risks before opening accounts.

Doing these checks manually can take a long time.

Digital KYC and document-checking tools can make the process faster.

These tools can also keep records and send complicated cases to human compliance teams.

Experts say customers may choose banks based on how easy and fast the process is, not just on interest rates.

The RBI’s FCNR window runs until September 2026, giving banks time to improve onboarding and attract more NRI customers.

Key facts

NRI deposit growth: NRI deposits increased 43% to $13.33 billion in 2024.
FCNR window: The RBI’s FCNR window continues through September 2026.
AI adoption: Reported KYC and AML AI adoption rose from 42% in 2024 to 82% in 2025.
Automated verification: Automated verification can reduce processing time by around 78% compared with manual review.
Review-time reduction: Some institutions have reduced KYC and AML review times by up to 60%.
Client losses: Fenergo research found that 70% of financial institutions lost clients in 2025 because of slow onboarding, compared with 48% in 2023.
Onboarding comparison: UK corporate banks take more than six weeks on average for onboarding, while Singapore-based institutions are described as comparatively faster.

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