‘Govt wants to remain on fringes and help’: FM Sitharaman launches foreign currency settlement system at GIFT City
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launched the foreign currency settlement system (FCSS) in GIFT IFSC on Tuesday. This will facilitate seamless transactions on a real-time basis instead of the lag of 36-48 hours that foreign currency transactions took to get settled. It will also enhance liquidity management, and ensure compliance.
Speaking at the Global Fintech Fest 2025, Sitharaman said that GIFT City now joins a list of financial centres like Hong Kong, Tokyo, Manila, and some other centres which have the infrastructure to settle foreign currency transactions locally.
The finance minister said fintech has democratised finance in India. India ranks third in the number of fintech companies and accounts for half of the world’s real-time digital transactions, she said. The government’s policy has been to nurture the fintech sector through a balanced approach, she said, adding that it would like to remain in the fringes and watch. “We like to remain on the fringes and help…we have to enable businesses and not interrupt their progress,” Sitharaman said. She further stated that fintech in India has not only digitised payments but also empowered millions to save, invest, borrow, and insure with transparency.
The FCSS payment system has been authorised by the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007. It enables foreign currency transactions between IFSC Banking Units (IBUs) to be settled locally instead of through the traditional correspondent banking route.
The system will initially process transactions in US dollars. There are plans to include other foreign currencies later. UK-based lender Standard Chartered Bank has been selected by CCIL IFSC as the settlement bank for FCSS through an open bidding process.
The FCSS is part of the India-UK collaboration to develop a vibrant financial services ecosystem in the country’s maiden International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in GIFT City.
Apart from that and as part of the collaboration, Queen’s University of Belfast, the ninth oldest university in the UK, is in the advanced stages of setting up its International Branch Campus in GIFT IFSC. The university is ranked 199 in the QS World Universities Ranking for 2026. This campus will be the largest branch of a foreign university in India. The first group of students is expected to begin classes in January 2026, subject to final approval by the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA).
Moreover, the University of Surrey, ranked 262 in the QS World Universities Ranking for 2026, also received in-principle approval from IFSCA in October 2025 to establish its International Branch Campus in GIFT IFSC. The formal handover of this approval is expected soon. The university plans to start academic operations in the second half of 2026.
