Standard Chartered Bank starts operations at IFSC GIFT City

British lender Standard Chartered Bank's local unit has started operations from the International Financial Services Centre, becoming the first global bank to commence operations from the special economic zone in Gandhinagar. Presence at the newly built IFSC GIFT City can help the lender expand its business in trade, lending, financial market transactions and other structured products, a statement said. A slew of Indian lenders have operations at the IFSC, which helps them operate like a foreign unit, even though located within the geographical limits of India, and gives access to cheaper funds and also provides products for the global needs of Indian corporates

"The value propositions offered at IFSC GIFT City have given us an opportunity to set up our offshore banking unit (OBU) and further enhance our India franchise," its head of strategy Prakash Subramanian said. He added that it will focus on External Commercial Borrowings, Export Trade Finance and Financial Market Products from the OBU

The statement from the lender said over the last few months, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has enabled more products at IFSC, including raising liabilities from non-individuals with no tenor restrictions. The most recent addition was trading in non-deliverable derivative products starting June 1, 2020. The bank participated in non-deliverable derivative products and successfully closed multiple non-deliverable forward (NDF) and non-deliverable option (NDO) deals with several private sector banks and a corporate amounting to a volume of more than USD 100 million on the first day itself, the statement said.

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