UK, India launch financial partnership

Focus on bond market development in India

The United Kingdom and India on Friday launched a new financial partnership which would establish closer ties and deepen financial cooperation between London and Mumbai, two prominent financial centres.

The financial partnership would be led by Uday Kotak, executive vice chairman and managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank from India and Gerry Grimstone, chairman of Standard Life, from the UK. The partnership would initially focus on five themes including collaboration to develop the corporate bond market, mutual sharing of expertise on banking regulation and capitalisation and enhancing financial training and qualification.

The other two themes are financial inclusion and developing programmes to improve cross-border provision of financial and insurance services.

The economic secretary to the UK Treasury, Andrea Leadsom made the announcement regarding the partnership in Mumbai on Friday. She met with key Indian financial policy makers and the leaders of both Indian and UK financial services firms.

The financial partnership would examine key priorities across the UK and Indian financial services industries, and would make recommendations for deepening financial cooperation to the UK and Indian governments ahead of the next UK–India Economic and Financial Dialogue.