NSE gets Sebi approval for international exchange at GIFT City

National Stock Exchange of India Ltd, the nation's biggest stock bourse, has won market regulator SEBI nod to set up an international exchange at Gujarat International Finance Tec (GIFT) city.
NSE plans to start operating the new exchange by mid- February, its CEO J Ravichandran said at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit here.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched BSE's India International Exchange at GIFT city here. Through the new international exchange, BSE Ltd will look to provide electronic trading platform that will facilitate domestic companies to raise capital in foreign currency by issuing foreign currency dominated bonds and to trade in such securities.

"We have got the in-principle approval from SEBI yesterday and taken possession of our premises today. The orders for equipment have been placed and we are planning to start the international exchange by middle of February and it would be ahead of that and not later than that," Ravichandran said.
NSE is held by overseas companies including Goldman Sachs Strategic Investments Ltd, Morgan Stanley Strategic (Mauritius) Ltd and Citigroup Strategic Holdings Mauritius Ltd.
"As far as the products are concerned we have already applied with SEBI for product approvals and subject to that we would like to start whatever we have been in the domestic area -- derivatives we will start with, index futures and currencies," he said.

He said the exchange would also like to do commodities trading as it is important to offer to trading members the whole basket of products.

NSE IFSC Ltd, the global exchange promoted by the NSE, has received in-principle approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), to set up exchange at GIFT City here.
Gujarat's GIFT City, is being developed as the country's first International Financial Services Centre (IFSC).
When asked about expectations from SEBI from IEX, Ravichandran said it should offer flexibility in terms of fiscal incentives, regulatory regime and reduce the cost of trading, cost of operation and cost of capital for markets players as also of trading and clearing members.

"One of the thing that regulator may look at is reducing the capital requirements," he added.
Being a global exchange, NSE IFSC is expected to remain operational for a longer period than NSE during a trading day and all trades will be cleared and settled through NSE IFSC Clearing Corporations Ltd.
The regulator has recently issued norms allowing international exchanges to operate up to 23 hours in GIFT and settle trades at least twice a day.