Come Diwali, domestic individual investors can directly invest in international equities, bonds and ETFs from 130 stock exchanges across 31 countries including America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Africa.
This facility is being rolled out by India INX Global Access IFSC Ltd (Global Access) — a wholly-owned subsidiary of India INX, which is a subsidiary of BSE.
“We are going to offer this facility from Diwali through our Global Access platform and enable domestic investors coming through Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) to invest in global markets. We are creating a platform of multiple brokers and customers can choose the platform they want to use. We are offering choices to individual investors,” V Balasubramaniam, MD & CEO, India INX, told
Customers can start using Global Access platform after they go through a digital KYC process at the platform. Members of the Exchange will be able to offer global equity products to their resident Indian clients through INX GA.
Tie-up with brokerages
Domestic investors coming through LRS and using Global Access platform will be limited to buying of stocks, Bonds and ETFs in international stock exchanges. They will not be allowed to trade in them nor will they be permitted to participate in the derivatives segment, according to Balasubramaniam.
For enabling this facility, Balasubramaniam said India INX Global Access has already tied up with few foreign brokerage houses such as London-based Marex Spectron, US-based Interactive Brokers and also ED&F Capital. “We are in the process of adding Singapore-based Philip Capital and Russia-based Sova. The effort is to broaden the access of our domestic investors to international brokers. We are country agnostic i.e. whoever wants to offer such broking services in international markets, we will onboard them,” he said.
He highlighted that there are several high net worth and rich Indians who may want to do global diversification and have exposure to global assets.
For instance, if somebody wants to buy an Apple or Amazon share , they can directly get it executed in US markets very much from Indian shores. “We are fulfilling that aspiration at a significantly lower cost,” he said.
Regulated platform
Asked as to how Global Access differentiates better than other online discount brokerages with similar facility, Balasubramaniam said that customers can get significant cost advantages here.
“INXGA has tied up with multiple banks viz. HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and IndusInd Bank for seamless remittance experience at lower cost. Other banks will also be on boarded gradually.
Besides savings in forex conversion costs, we are also giving them comfort that ours is a regulated and registered platform. There is no regulatory ambiguity on whether it is regulated or not.
We are offering technology service so that customers get seamless digital experience”, he said.
It maybe recalled that the Reserve Bank of India ( RBI) had early this year allowed LRS — which allows resident Individual to freely remit upto $250,000 per year—to be operationalised in Gujarat’s Gift City, the country’s sole International Financial Services Centre.