DBS Bank has inaugurated its IFSC Banking Unit (IBU) in the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) at Gandhinagar in India.
GIFT City houses India’s first International Financial Services Centre (IFSC), offering a conducive regulatory environment, tax benefits, and other business enablers.
The DBS GIFT City IBU will initially focus on delivering corporate banking services, encompassing a range of foreign currency denominated loans, including external commercial borrowings (ECB) and trade finance products.
The bank said that it expects to build a book exceeding US$ 1 billion in the first year of operations. DBS will also expand the suite of offerings from the financial hub including solutions for its private banking clients.
DBS Bank already has a significant presence in India through its wholly owned subsidiary DBS Bank India Limited. It has a nationwide physical network of about 530 branches in over 350 locations across the country.
The IBU was inaugurated by Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong, in the presence of dignitaries from the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA), the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and GIFT City.
