Mutual Fund Houses that allow USA/Canada-based NRIs to Invest in India

NRIs based in the USA and Canada would be able to invest in only some of the Mutual Fund Houses in India. Many AMCs (Asset Management Companies) in India are yet to allow investments from NRIs based in USA or Canada. This is because Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) enacted by the USA. Nevertheless, there are some of the leading AMCs where an NRI can plan to invest the money. Here we will also look at the KYC process for an NRI to invest in Mutual Funds in India, NRE, NRO, FCNR account, along with the Best Performing Mutual Funds to invest for earning good profits.

AMCs Accepting Investment from Canada/USA NRIs

Since the time FATCA have come into place, many AMCs have stopped accepting investments from NRIs based in the US and Canada as it involved a lot of paperwork and compliance on the part of AMCs.

Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act is obligatory for all financial institutions to share the details of transactions involving US citizens, including Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) with the US Government. This is to make sure that there is no tax evasion by US citizens on income generated overseas. In the year 2015, India signed the Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) with The United State of America for implementing FATCA and improving International Tax Compliance.

Under FATCA, all the financial entities like mutual fund houses, Insurance companies, banks are supposed to furnish their client information to the Government of India that will further be shared with the US/Canadian Government.

However, there are some of the mutual fund houses that accept investments from NRIs bases in US/Canada:

• Sundaram Mutual Fund
• Reliance Mutual Fund
• L&T Mutual Fund
• UTI Mutual Fund

Each of these AMC has a different condition to accept investments from US or Canada based NRIs. Some of the fund houses amongst these accept investments only in paper application forms, whereas a few may accept online application through NSE NMFII or BSE STARMF platform, etc.

NRE, NRO, FCNR Accounts for Investments in India

To invest in Mutual Funds in India one is supposed to open any of the following accounts with an Indian Bank:

NRE Account

This is Non-Resident External (NRE) account which can be in the form of savings, current, fixed or Recurring deposit. You need to deposit the foreign currency in this account. To be able to deposit Indian currency, you must open NRO account. There is no upper limit on the transaction amount in an NRE account.

NRO Account

The NRO or Non-Resident Ordinary account is in the form of savings or current account that is meant for NRIs to manage their income earned in India. In NRO account, foreign currency gets converted into Indian rupees after it gets deposited. An NRO account can be held jointly with another NRI as well as resident Indian (close relatives).

FCNR Account

This stands for Foreign Currency Non-Repatriable account deposits. In this account, NRIs can remit their earnings in one of the six currencies such as Canadian $, US$, Euro, AU$, Yen, and Pound. Funds can be transferred from other FCNR or NRE accounts. In FCNR, the principal and interest don’t accrue any tax.

Once you open any of these accounts, you need successfully complete your KYC (Know Your Customer), under KYC norms, which is set by SEBI (Securities Exchange Board of India). One can complete their KYC with any of the SEBI-registered intermediates.

KYC Procedure for NRIs to Invest in Mutual Funds

To successfully complete your KYC procedure, NRIs need to complete certain important steps and furnish documents like:

a. KYC Form

An NRI needs to submit the KYC Form with all the necessary details filled to the SEBI registered intermediate. The documents can be sent by courier/post to the intermediate.

b. Documents

Following are the necessary documents that need to be submitted:

• Overseas address proof
• Indian resident address proof
• A recent photograph
• Passport copy

In case of NRIs in the Merchant Navy, a mariner’s declaration or certified copy of Continuous Discharge Certificate must be submitted.

c. Attestation

NRIs or PIOs (Person of India Origin) can get the above documents attested by the authorised officials of overseas branches of scheduled commercial banks registered in India, judge, court magistrate, public notaries, or the Indian embassy/consulate general in the country that they are located.

d. In Personal Verification (IPV)

As per SEBI rules, IPV is mandatory for KYC process. The intermediate should conduct the IPV of NRIs/PIOs.

Please note that all the above documents/proofs while submitting should be in the English language.

Best Performing Mutual Funds for US/Canada NRIs

*List of funds is based on past 3 Year Returns in decending order.