Standard Chartered Bank received an in-principle approval from the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) to distribute capital market and wealth management products from its branch at GIFT City in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. The approval allows the foreign lender to offer retail wealth services from India’s first international financial services centre, with its Signature CIO Funds expected to be the first products launched. The move marks the bank’s expansion beyond the corporate and institutional banking it has offered from the hub since it became the first foreign bank to begin operations there in 2020.
The Approval: What It Means
The in-principle clearance from IFSCA permits the bank to distribute capital market products, which are investment instruments linked to securities markets such as mutual funds, portfolio management services and structured products. This opens the door for the lender to launch its Signature CIO Funds, a suite of four funds that follow the investment strategies of the bank’s Chief Investment Office. These funds invest in a diversified multi-asset portfolio spanning equities, fixed income, commodities, alternatives and cash.
The bank expects to roll out the Signature CIO Funds for eligible clients in the coming weeks, with a broader set of wealth solutions to follow. Since their launch in 2022, the Signature CIO Funds have attracted more than $5 billion in assets under management and are available in 12 markets across the bank’s network.
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 corporations, domestic companies, financial institutions and small and medium enterprises. He added that the bank has financed transactions worth more than $25 billion across products from the centre.
What Is an International Financial Services Centre?
An International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) is a special financial zone that provides financial services to non-residents and foreign institutions in a currency other than the Indian rupee. It is treated as a foreign jurisdiction located within India, allowing banks and financial firms to conduct cross-border business on terms similar to global financial hubs.
An IFSC is allowed to offer services in foreign currency and can deal with clients outside India as though it were an offshore location. This lets global institutions serve international investors, manage foreign exchange flows and set up treasury and fund operations without many of the restrictions that apply on the Indian mainland.
Before the IFSCA was created, financial activities inside an IFSC were regulated by the domestic regulators, namely the RBI, the SEBI, the IRDAI and the PFRDA. This multi-agency structure was seen as a hurdle for a centre that needed speed and flexibility. The government therefore created a single unified regulator to oversee all financial activity in these zones.
GIFT City: India’s First IFSC
GIFT City, short for Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, is India’s first operational IFSC and also its first greenfield smart city. It lies on the banks of the Sabarmati river, about 12 km from Ahmedabad’s international airport and 8 km from Gandhinagar. The project was conceptualised in 2007 by Narendra Modi, then Chief Minister of Gujarat, who announced plans to build a modern financial hub in the state.
The city is spread across a multi-service Special Economic Zone (SEZ), which houses the IFSC, and an exclusive Domestic Tariff Area (DTA). The SEZ hosts international exchanges, international banking units and fund management entities, while the DTA has offices, hotels and residential projects. In 2015, the then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley highlighted GIFT City in the Union Budget as a potential global financial centre along the lines of Singapore and Dubai.
Key institutions have made the hub their home. The India International Bullion Exchange (IIBX), India’s first bullion exchange, was inaugurated here by the Prime Minister on 29 July 2022. The NSE International Exchange (NSE IX) and India INX, the international arms of the National Stock Exchange and the BSE, also operate from the city. Over the years, the number of entities registered at the IFSC has crossed the 1,000 mark across banking, insurance, asset management and leasing.
What Is the IFSCA?
The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) is the unified regulator for financial products, financial services and financial institutions in India’s international financial services centres. It was established on 27 April 2020 as a statutory body under the International Financial Services Centres Authority Act, 2019, which received presidential assent on 19 December 2019. The authority is headquartered at GIFT City, Gandhinagar.
IFSCA combines under one roof the powers that were earlier spread across the RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and PFRDA, as far as IFSC business is concerned. It operates under the Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance. The first Chairperson of IFSCA was Injeti Srinivas, who took charge in 2020. The current Chairperson is K Rajaraman, a 1989-batch IAS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre, who has been serving in the post since 2023 and was re-appointed in July 2026.
Why GIFT City Is Attractive to Global Banks
The biggest draw of GIFT City is its tax-neutral framework. Under Section 80LA of the Income Tax Act, eligible IFSC units can claim a 100% deduction on their business income for 10 consecutive years out of the first 15 years of operation. Transactions executed on IFSC exchanges are also exempt from securities transaction tax, commodities transaction tax and stamp duty, and services rendered to overseas clients attract no GST.
The Union Budget 2026-27 strengthened this regime further. The government proposed extending the deduction window for IFSC units to 20 consecutive years out of a block of 25 years, and set a concessional 15% tax rate on business income after the holiday period ends. International banking units in the zone get the same treatment. This gives global banks the long-term certainty they need before committing large capital to a new location.
The numbers show why banks are keen. IFSC banking units in GIFT City had cumulatively disbursed over $100 billion in foreign-currency loans, and nearly one-third of India’s external commercial borrowings are now initiated through the IFSC. Banks operating in the hub have also benefited from the RBI’s special deposit programme, which offers a concessional forex swap window to attract overseas dollar deposits, with measures valid until 30 September 2026.
Standard Chartered has been a pioneer in this ecosystem. Beyond lending, trade finance and transaction banking, it has introduced market-first offerings such as offshore derivative instrument issuances, foreign portfolio investor transactions, bullion hedging solutions and receivables factoring. It is also a preferred bank for regional treasury centres, holding about half the market share in that segment.
Why Wealth Management Is the Next Big Push
Wealth management is the business of helping individuals manage and grow their money through investment advisory, portfolio construction and financial planning. Until now, the focus of most banks in GIFT City was on corporate and institutional clients. This approval marks one of the first moves by a foreign bank to bring products aimed at individual investors to the hub.
The timing reflects a broader shift. India’s high-net-worth individual population has been growing steadily, with the country adding over 71,000 new millionaires in 2025, according to one global study. The wealth management industry in India is projected to nearly double to about $2.3 trillion by fiscal 2029. With growing wealth comes demand for cross-border products, international diversification and access to global markets, exactly what an IFSC can provide.
With this approval, Standard Chartered joins HSBC, which already offers wealth management services from GIFT City, in serving retail clients from the centre. Regulators have also been broadening the ecosystem. IFSCA introduced its Fund Management Regulations in 2025 to simplify fund setup, and issued the first family investment fund licence in the hub in April 2026, allowing families to set up private investment vehicles to manage their wealth.
What This Means for India’s Financial Ambitions
The approval is a small but telling step in India’s effort to build a global financial hub that can compete with Singapore, Dubai and Hong Kong. For years, a large share of Indian financial business, such as fund registration, aircraft leasing and offshore treasury operations, was routed through foreign centres. GIFT City is designed to bring that activity back onshore and keep it within Indian regulatory reach.
The entry of foreign banks into retail wealth services helps the centre in three ways. First, it deepens the product range available to high-net-worth individuals and non-resident Indians, who can now access global investment products from within India. Second, it brings global expertise in advisory and portfolio construction to the domestic market. Third, it signals to other international institutions that India’s IFSC is ready for retail-scale business, not just wholesale operations.
The expansion also links directly to the government’s vision of making India a hub for international finance. With a unified regulator, an extended tax holiday and a growing base of banking, fund management and leasing activity, GIFT City is slowly moving from a pilot project to a functioning financial centre. The decision by one of the world’s oldest international banks to add wealth management to its GIFT City presence is a vote of confidence in that direction.
Key Takeaways
- Standard Chartered received in-principle approval from the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) to distribute capital market and wealth management products from GIFT City, Gandhinagar.
- The bank plans to launch its Signature CIO Funds from GIFT City, a suite of four funds that has attracted over $5 billion in assets under management since 2022.
- Standard Chartered was the first foreign bank to begin operations in GIFT City, in 2020, and currently serves more than 600 clients with financing of over $25 billion.
- The IFSCA was established on 27 April 2020 as a statutory body under the International Financial Services Centres Authority Act, 2019, with headquarters at GIFT City.
- GIFT City, conceptualised in 2007, is India’s first International Financial Services Centre, and the India International Bullion Exchange (IIBX) was launched there on 29 July 2022.
- The Union Budget 2026-27 extended the IFSC tax holiday to 20 consecutive years out of 25 years, with a concessional 15% tax rate after the holiday period.
