Fifteen payment firms, including Razorpay IFSC, Regulus Pay IFSC, and EbixCash World Money Global IFSC, are at an advanced stage of obtaining licenses in GIFT City, Gujarat. According to reports from The Hindu BusinessLine, Regulus Pay IFSC applied to the IFSCA in August while Razorpay IFSC and EbixCash World Money Global IFSC submitted their applications in July. The regulator has so far authorized nine payment-service providers, with another 10-15 companies at an advanced stage of obtaining licenses in GIFT City. As reported by The Hindu BusinessLine, the growing interest in GIFT City is driven by its unified regulatory architecture, which allows payment companies to serve multiple financial-service businesses without navigating separate regulators.
The growing interest in GIFT City is driven by its unified regulatory architecture, which allows payment companies to serve multiple financial-service businesses without having to navigate separate regulators. As reported by The Hindu BusinessLine, IFSCA Executive Director Dipesh Shah explained at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai that payment companies previously faced challenges serving different financial units due to separate licensing requirements under different regulations. "As a payment-service provider, you always had one problem statement. You wanted to serve multiple financial services units but because they were licensed differently under different regulations, your challenge was that you had to navigate through different regulators," Shah said. GIFT City solves this problem by bringing banking, insurance, capital markets and several other financial-services segments under one regulator, enabling payment service providers to cater to all segments.
Under the IFSC framework, PSPs can undertake a range of activities including account services, e-money services, cross-border money transfers, merchant acquisition and escrow services. According to the report, the relatively low capital requirement compared with India's onshore regime is also making GIFT City attractive to payment companies. The framework provides payment companies with a comprehensive platform for cross-border operations and global expansion, with Shah noting that "the relatively low capital requirement compared with India's onshore regime is also helping make GIFT City attractive to payment companies."
The proposition extends beyond serving financial institutions within GIFT City, as payment companies can use the IFSC as a launchpad for global expansion while also facilitating outward flows from India under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS). As reported by The Hindu BusinessLine, this framework helps payment companies navigate Indian money going outside under the LRS scheme to be utilized through GIFT City, enabling them to go global through GIFT City while facilitating outward remittances from India. "It helps them to go global through GIFT City and also helps them to navigate Indian money going outside under the LRS scheme to be utilised through GIFT City," Shah explained.
