America's second largest bank, Bank of America Corp (BoA) on Friday inaugurated its Global Business Services Centre at International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at GIFT City. This makes BoA first international bank to start operations in the country's first and only IFSC at GIFT City.
BoA's Global Business Services Centre was inaugurated by Catherine P. Bessant, Chief Operations and Technology Officer and Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in the presence of officials from BoA and Gujarat Government.
This will give a big boost to Indian corporate as it would allow them to raise debt finance in international currency. BoA launched two Indian bonds auction at its platform in GIFT-IFSC.
In her address during the inauguration, Kaku Nakhate, President and Country Head of Bank of America India, said, “We have been encouraging Indian corporates to consider this as a platform for auction of bonds. Two of the bonds that we have listed here are for IndusInd and Yes Bank, other than Luxembourg and Singapore, they are listed on GIFT-IFSC.”
BoA is also looking to create an ecosystem for fintech. “We are here to explore AI, robotics and fintech as we go through across the world and GIFT city has extended its hand to be open to such kind of innovative thinking," she stated.
Catherine P. Bessant in her address said, “BoA is a significant employer in India. We have 29,000 people in five cities in Gurugram, Hydrabad, Chennai, Mumbai and now at Gift City. About 30 per cent of our total workforce of technology and operation in the organisation is here in India. Strategically, India is important for us.”
This country has always offered us great talent and strong scientific and engineering culture and outstanding management talent. We have almost 500 people at this place and has capacity to expand up to 1,500 in full capacity here,” Bessant said.
Gujarat Chief Minister Rupani termed the inauguration of BOA's Global Business Services Center as an important milestone for the State. “It would be a turning point for creating large number of businesses and services jobs in Gujarat. Gujarat government has already announced an IT-park in GIFT City with a commitment of 6,00,000 sqft for the IT companies. Our government is keen to develop GIFT City as Fintech hub not just for India but for Asia."
BoA's presence creates an opportunity to build an incubator, which will promote startups to promoto smart city solutions in areas such as management of waste/water/traffic/environment. This allows Bank of America to further grow its existing talent pool.