K Rajaraman, chairman, International Financial Services Centre Authority
IFSCA’s light touch and principle-based regulations have been aligned to global standards to provide the entities with flexibility to offer products in various classes of business including re/insurance and be at par with international peer jurisdictions, said Raja Raman, delivering(virtually) the key note address( at India InsurTech Association’s third Annual Event held in Mumbai
Mumbai: K Rajaraman, chairman, International Financial Services Center Authority (IFSCA) has said the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, International Financial Services Centre (GIFT IFSC) has emerged as a dynamic hub for international financial services and a gateway for domestic and global investment opportunities.
IFSCA’s light touch and principle-based regulations have been aligned to global standards to provide the entities with flexibility to offer products in various classes of business including re/insurance and be at par with international peer jurisdictions, said Rajaraman, delivering(Virtually) the key note address at India InsurTech Association’s third Annual Event held in Mumbai.
“There is a great momentum seen in the development of the Centre since the setting up of the IFSC Authority wherein all efforts are congregated towards onshoring the off-shore,’’ he said.
IFSCA, which is aiming to make GIFT IFSC a global Re/insurance Hub with its principle based approach for product designing, pricing and filling, has currently 16 IFSC Insurance Offices (IIOs) and 25 IFSC Insurance Intermediary Offices (IIIOs), taking the total count of registered insurance entities to 41. All the 16 IIOs are also well-diversified between life, non-life, health and re-insurers, said Rajaraman.
In the domain of life and health insurance, the IIOs are permitted to issue insurance policies for non-resident employees of Indian companies, Group insurance for SEZ and IFSC employers for their employees, apart from life & health policies for foreign nationals.
“India has been making large strides in the field of medical tourism and health products of IIOs can help contribute to the larger objective of promoting India as a quality healthcare destination for persons across the globe and to gainfully utilize the health care expertise and infrastructure available in the country,” emphasised Rajaraman..
“I am confident that alongside catering to NRIs, such products would also attract foreign nationals to opt for insurance solutions from GIFT IFSC. Products like these will set an example for others for “Make in India, for the world,” said Rajaraman.
The IIOs in GIFT IFSC are permitted to offer wide plethora of products from IFSC in the field of life and health insurance solutions to thousands of Indian Diaspora / NRI’s.
Indian diaspora, including both Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and People of Indian Origin (PIOs), is estimated to be around 33 million, one of the largest diasporas globally and opportunities for IIOs are immense as the IFSCA’s regulatory framework allows NRIs / Foreign nationals to buy multi-currency products offered from the IFSC , informed IFSCA chairman.
IFSCA has also has vision to establish of a world-class Fintech Hub at GIFT IFSC.
Broadly, the hub is now facilitating Indian finTech start-ups to access global markets, partnerships, and investment opportunities. In a similar vein, the hub is attracting foreign Fintech firms who want to access the opportunities at GIFT IFSC and the Indian market.
Further under TechFin domain, progressive areas like RegTech, Distributed Ledger Technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML), Cybersecurity, Quantum Tech have been energetically pursued by fintech firms. Owing to the transforming impact of AI/ML in the financial sector, it has been gaining a lot of traction among firms which has been further stimulating the establishment of an AI Center of Excellence (CoE) at GIFT IFSC.
“In similar fashion there is lot of potential for innovation in Insurance sector through various Tech Platforms and TechFin Companies in GIFT IFSC,’’ he added.
To facilitate the growth of fintech firms across India and foreign jurisdictions, IFSCA has come up with one of its kind regulatory frameworks.
The “Framework for FinTech Entity in the IFSCs is a light touch regulatory framework that aims at fostering innovation in financial services through innovation facilitators like Regulatory/Innovation Sandbox for FinTech activities spanning across Banking, Capital Market, insurance sector etc. and at the same time enables the pure play technology companies providing allied activities/services to BFSI sector be regulated in GIFT IFSC.