WGC contemplates developing comprehensive plan for proposed international bullion exchange in India

The World Gold Council (WGC) on Friday discussed developing a comprehensive plan for the proposed international bullion exchange and instituting an ecosystem for an organised and transparent trading of bullion at IFSC in GIFT City.

These issues were discussed in the meeting of the WGC's steering committee in Gujarat International Fin-Tec City (GIFT City). The meeting was attended by industry leaders covering WGC, exchanges, bullion associations, jewellers' associations, banks, and international vaulting service providers, and GIFT City officials as well.

In four years, GIFT IFSC has developed a competitive environment for international financial services such as banking, insurance, capital markets and the financial technology space.

"With the addition of bullion exchange, the ecosystem will be complete and will add depth to the bullion commodity market," GIFT City said in a statement.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget Speech 2020-21 proposed to set up an international bullion exchange at IFSC in GIFT City, which will lead to better price discovery of gold, create more jobs and enhance India's position in such market.

The country's only International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) is in GIFT City near Ahmedabad in Gujarat.

"International bullion exchange is an important element of a vibrant financial hub. For an emerging financial hub like GIFT IFSC, the time is apt to establish the bullion exchange as this will provide impetus to investments and international transactions," GIFT City MD and Group CEO Tapan Ray said.

"We are happy that the implementation on this front has begun jointly by all stakeholders in the value chain. The strategy laid out by them will be an important in realising the establishment of a world class bullion trading mechanism for GIFT IFSC," he added.

Somasundaram P R, managing director of WGC, said the industry steering committee, representing the entire supply chain, including global banks and exchanges, met and debated the opportunity of an organised bullion trading ecosystem in GIFT City and concluded this could be a game changer.

"It was agreed to present a joint industry paper on key steps in the next few weeks for successful implementation," he added.