GIFT’s Ajay Pandey
Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. becomes the fourth bank to open its IFSC Banking Unit (IBU) at India’s first and only International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT).
Kotak Mahindra Bank is one of India’s leading banking and financial services group, offering a wide range of financial services that encompass every sphere of life. It offers transaction banking, operates lending verticals, manages IPOs and provides working capital loans.
With over US$250 million worth of business transactions done at the IFSC in the past six months, GIFT is attracting a lot of interest from the BFSI sector in India, especially from banks, insurance companies and other financial services players who want to tap the global markets.
IFSC Banking Unit (IBU) allows an Indian bank to deliver a complete range of products to its clients with foreign currency funding requirements. IBU can actively offer products such as external commercial borrowings to its customers, an area where it had limited capabilities hitherto. IBU will also be able to meet the funding requirements of overseas entities which may be joint ventures or subsidiaries of its domestic clients or part of the value chain of its existing customers
Welcoming the opening of Kotak Mahindra Bank’s IBU at GIFT IFSC, Ajay Pandey, MD & Group CEO of GIFT Company Ltd. said, “We are happy to have Kotak Mahindra Bank at GIFT IFSC. It’s an important addition for us to have one of India’s leading private sector bank set up base at India’s first IFSC. Setting up of IFSC in India has been the vision of the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, as this would be a major game changer for the financial services sector in India. The major tax incentives announced in the last Union Budget have made the IFSC at GIFT a globally competitive player and many more BFSI players are swarming to this new global financial hub.”
K V S Manian, President – Corporate, Institutional and Investment Banking, Kotak Mahindra Bank, said, “Indian corporates have expanded business operations across geographies, which in turn has led to increased requirement for financial products and services in overseas markets. Our IBU in GIFT City will cater to this growing demand. We will offer a host of products and services including External Commercial Borrowings (ECB), buyers’ credit for imports, and factoring / forfaiting of export receivables for Indian corporates in international markets.”
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 has made allotment of more than 15 million square feet of built up area (BUA) in the SEZ and Non-SEZ area for development of office towers, residential apartments and social facilities to be developed at an estimated total investment of over Rs 10,000 crore.
Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) is India’s First Global Financial Hub. Part of GIFT City is notified as multi-service SEZ with International Financial Service Centre (IFSC) status which is catering to India’s large financial services potential by offering global firms, world-class infrastructure and facilities. fii-news.com
