Gandhinagar

India’s first International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) becomes operational as the country’s first IFSC Banking Unit (IBU) set up by YES BANK, India’s fifth largest private sector Bank, begins operations.

Another four banks – State Bank of India, IDBI Bank, IndusInd Bank and Federal Bank – have received final approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and are going to commence IBU operations shortly. Over 15 Financial Institutions have been allocated space in GIFT IFSC, MD & Group CEO of GIFT Company Ltd, Mr, Ajay Pandey said today.

He claimed that the IFSC at GIFT is attracting a lot of interest from the BFSI sector in India, especially from banks, insurance companies and other financial services players who want to tap the global markets. IFSC Banking Unit (IBU) allows an Indian bank to deliver a complete range of products to its clients with foreign currency funding requirements. IBU can actively offer products such as external commercial borrowings to its customers, an area where it had limited capabilities hitherto. IBU will also be able to meet the funding requirements of overseas entities which may be joint ventures or subsidiaries of its domestic clients or part of the value chain of its existing customers

He said that setting up of IFSC in India has been the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as this would be a major game changer for the financial services sector in India. The Finance Minister in his budget speech had indicated that GIFT SEZ-IFSC would be soon operationalised with the issuance of operating guidelines by RBI, SEBI and IRDA and it was now happening.

Mr. Rana Kapoor, MD and CEO of Yes Bank said that establishing the IBU will propel YES BANK’s growth plans further by providing it access to International financial markets, as well as provide a comprehensive product suite to its corporate clients requiring Foreign Currency (FCY) funding.

The GIFT city is estimated to provide 5 lakh direct and an equal number of indirect jobs which would require 62 million square feet of commercial, residential and social facilities with total investment of about Rs. 78000 crore over next 10 year.

– DeshGujarat