Two Japanese banks set to start operations in GIFT City: IFSCA chief

Two more Japanese banks are set to join 10 foreign and 16 local banks in the tax-free GIFT City, where more than 550 businesses with assets worth USD 47 billion have registered and begun operations, an official said.. This marks a significant expansion of the GIFT City's financial sector, which is expected to play a key role in India's economic growth, International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) chairman K Rajaraman said here.

"We also want Indian origin funds and businesses that are located in tax-free jurisdictions to return home and be part of the growing GIFT City hub," said Rajaraman, giving this update on the Ahmedabad-based city free trade zone, where ease of doing business procedures, processes and laws have become a benchmark for international standards.

IFSCA is the regulatory body for the Indian special economic zones such as the GIFT City.

Rajaraman said his recent delegation to Tokyo has resulted in two Japanese banks registering in the GIFT City, and more are expected as he continued discussions with potential businesses at the Singapore Fintech Festival being held 15-17 November 2023.

"We are at Singapore Fintech Festival to promote the advantages of being in Tax-Free GIFT City," he underlined.

He informed that 78 fund managers with 88 alternative investment funds, 82 funds with a corpus of USD 90 billion, as well as five insurance companies and two stock exchanges - GIFT CITY Nifty of National Stock Exchange and a bullion exchange are already part of the business community that the Indian government wants to establish and be part of the global financial network.

"We believe a lot of India-focus business will certainly work out of GIFT City and a lot of fast growth is seen, he said, pointing out that 122 aircraft assets have been leased out tax-free city.

"We have three electronic trading platforms - international trade finance solutions for bill factoring while there are insurance companies with international joint venture partners," said Rajaraman.

The Singapore Fintech Festival had 650 companies from across the world.