India's leading stock exchange, National Stock Exchange (NSE) plans to establish country's first international exchange in Gujarat International Fin-Tec SEZ (GIFT SEZ), situated on the outskirts of the State capital Gandhinagar.
Chitra Ramkrishna, managing director and CEO of NSE signed an MoU with GIFT SEZ ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gujarat International Finance Tec - City Company limited (GIFTCl), known as GIFT City on Thursday in the presence of Gujarat's Finance Minister Saurabh Patel.
"Presence of NSE at GIFT City for operating international exchange is the testimony to the recognition of GIFT City emerging as a preferred destination for international financial services in the country. This MoU would go a long way in establishing country's first international exchange with participation of Global Institutions. Gujarat Government with the help of Central Government is taking all necessary steps to fast track the development of GIFT City which will transform state of Gujarat and India as a whole and create large number of jobs," said Patel.
NSE plans to develop an international standard exchange providing electronic platform for facilitating trading, clearing and settlement of securities, and shall explore possibility of starting trading facilities in different asset classes like equities, interest rates, currencies, among others. "Being a world class institution, NSE wants to be a part of GIFT SEZ. We would like to be a part of the vision of the Government to develop International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in India. This will allow Indian and international entities to deal in financial products and services from India, making GIFT-India as one of the foremost international financial centres in the world," said Ramakrishna. She further said that world class infrastructure of GIFT would help to provide better facilities to NSE customers currently source from outside India.
Ramakant Jha, MD & Group CEO, GIFT City said that the MoU with NSE would help in attracting various international services and thereby create an eco system for operation of international exchange in the country.
"In the absence of an IFSC in India, the country has reportedly lost market share in few financial products. Overseas venues like SGX (in Singapore), DGCX (in Dubai) and CME (in Chicago, and worldwide), and the global OTC and NDF markets, have been very successful in this trading," said a senior official with GIFT City
By establishing international exchange in GIFT IFSC, if even a small slice of this trading comes back to India through the international exchange set up in IFSC-GIFT by NSE, it would be a substantial achievement for India, he said, adding that it will also help international companies raise finance from other international investors within the International Finance Centre which can compete on rules, regulations and ease of business with other international finance centres such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai and london.