Business transactions in GIFT City's IFSC to cross $1 billion by June

GIFT City today said the business transactions from its international financial services centre (IFSC) will cross $1 billion by June and business of more than $100 million has already happened so far.

"IFSC at Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) has crossed the $100 million business transactions mark. $1 billion business is expected to be crossed in next 3-4 months," GIFT company said in a statement.

"Another dozen plus banks and insurance players are going to commence operations at GIFT IFSC in the coming few months. The IFSC at GIFT is attracting a lot of interest from the financial services sector in India...," it added.

"... We expect that the next big milestone of $1 billion business transactions at GIFT IFSC will be achieved shortly", Ajay Pandey, MD & Group CEO of GIFT City said in the statement.

Two banks – Yes Bank and Federal Bank – have generated this sort of business within three months of their IFSC Banking Units becoming operational at GIFT IFSC.

Yes Bank was the first to set up an IFSC banking unit (IBU) at GIFT IFSC in October last year and Federal Bank's IBU started functioning a few weeks later in November.

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

Manish Vora, CEO, IBU Branch, Yes Bank said: "The business momentum has been building up well. We expect significant ramp up in volumes over the next few months. Our focus in this phase is to meet foreign currency banking requirement of our existing and new clients."

"It has widened our geographical presence and we are able to provide enhanced business solutions and opportunities to our existing clientele. We are in the process of exploring more avenues for international business in the days to come," said Tomy John, vice-president, Federal Bank.