Standard Chartered gets IFSCA approval to launch wealth products from GIFT City

Mumbai: Standard Chartered has received in-principle approval from the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) to distribute capital market products from GIFT City, the bank said in a statement on Thursday.

The approval will allow the lender to launch its wealth management business from GIFT City, with retail services expected to begin over the next few months.

Standard Chartered was the first foreign bank to start operations in GIFT City in 2020. It currently offers lending, trade finance, transaction banking and financial markets products to corporate and institutional clients from the international financial centre.

P.D. Singh, chief executive for India and South Asia at Standard Chartered, said the bank serves more than 600 clients in GIFT City, including multinational companies, domestic corporates, financial institutions and small businesses. It has financed more than $25 billion through its GIFT City operations.

"We have the largest client base amongst foreign banks in GIFT City," Singh said, adding that the bank also holds around half of the regional treasury centre market there and is seeing "growing interest in GIFT City as a financial gateway to India" from clients and investors globally.

The approval comes as GIFT City's banking ecosystem continues to expand. The centre now hosts 37 banks, including 20 foreign lenders, while banking assets have grown more than sevenfold since 2020 to exceed $106 billion. Standard Chartered's wealth offering is among the first by a foreign bank to extend beyond wholesale banking into products aimed at individual investors.

The move also coincides with rapid growth in India's wealth management industry. Deloitte estimates assets under management will nearly double from about $1.1 trillion in FY24 to $2.3 trillion by FY29, driven by rising financial wealth and increasing participation in financial assets.

Over the past two years, Standard Chartered has expanded its GIFT City operations by building one of the largest on-ground teams among foreign banks and adding services such as corporate treasury management and foreign currency settlement.

The bank has operated in India for more than 165 years and has a presence across corporate, investment, retail and wealth banking.

GIFT IFSC entities are eligible for a 100% tax holiday for 10 consecutive years within their first 15 years of operation, along with exemptions on capital gains and interest income for non-residents, under a regulatory regime run by IFSCA as a single unified regulator rather than the multi-agency oversight of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) on the mainland, making it an attractive base for foreign banks.