GIFT City units of YES, Federal Bank do $100 mn business

Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT), India's first International Financial Services Centre (IFSC), crossed $100 million worth of business transactions by two banks within three months of the launch of their banking units in the centre, GIFT IFSC said in a statement on Monday.

YES Bank and Federal Bank have generated business worth $100 million from services such as buyers' credit, external commercial borrowings, deposits and credit facilities to Indian companies registered abroad, the statement said here.

YES Bank set up their unit at GIFT City in October 2015, while Federal Bank's unit started functioning in November 2015.

A unit at GIFT IFSC is equivalent to a foreign branch and facilitates the bank to function as such from within India.

"More than a dozen banks and insurance players are going to commence operations at GIFT IFSC in the coming months. The IFSC at GIFT is attracting a lot of interest from the financial services sector in India, especially from banks, insurance companies and capital market players who want to tap the global market," Ajay Pandey, chief executive, GIFT City, said.

"We expect the next big milestone of $1 billion business transactions at GIFT IFSC will be achieved shortly," he added.

Chief executive of the YES Bank unit Manish Vora said: "Business momentum has been building up well, and given the positive feedback from clients, we expect a significant ramp-up in volumes over the next few months.

Tomy John, vice-president, Federal Bank said: "We are in the process of exploring more avenues for international business in the days to come."