IFSC at GIFT City crosses $250 million business mark

The Gujarat International Finance Tec-City is expected to reach $1 billion in coming days

Country's first International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at GIFT City has crossed the $250 million business transactions mark in six months time and is expected to reach $1 billion in coming days.

The $100 million was crossed in early February and in two months time, business transactions at IFSC have more than doubled.

Yes Bank, Federal Bank and ICICI Bank have commenced operations with their IFSC Banking Units and State Bank of India is expected to commence operations soon.

In addition, Punjab National Bank, Corporation Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IDBI Bank and IndusInd Bank are some of the other players who will begin operating at GIFT City (Gujarat International Finance Tec-City) IFSC in the near future.

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

The $1 billion business mark is likely to cross in few months, GIFT City said today.

"After crossing the $250 million business mark at GIFT IFSC, the next target is $500 million and then the $1 billion mark in coming months. The tax incentives given in the Union Budget have now firmly put GIFT IFSC on the global financial map.

After banks, we expect a few insurance companies to start operations soon at GIFT IFSC," MD and Group CEO of GIFT City Ajay Pandey said in a statement.

"Stock and commodity market operations are the other major focus areas and work is actively on to get this started at GIFT IFSC. Significant volumes of NSE's Nifty derivatives trading are taking place on the Singapore Stock Exchange. We want GIFT IFSC to start trading in this segment so that this derivatives trading business can come back to India from Singapore," he added.

Development of completed unique infrastructure, project single window clearance and conducive regulatory environment has made GIFT City a favoured destination for various players to be a part of the city's development.

GIFT city, situated in Gujarat, caters to India's large financial services potential by offering global firms a world-class infrastructure and facilities. It aims to attract the top talent in the country by providing the finest quality of life all with integrated townships, IFSC and multi-speciality special economic zone (SEZ).