New India Assurance Company on Friday became the first insurance company to open a unit at International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) near Gandhinagar.

G Srinivasan, CMD, New India Assurance Co, said, “The opening of IFSC Insurance Office (IIO) at GIFT-IFSC today, will mark a major milestone in the history of New India Assurance. With the IIO, we will now be able to provide global insurance services and facilities to our Indian and international customers from GIFT IFSC.

“The company will also offer re-insurance business to Indian companies operating in off-shore locations. Currently, we provide insurance and reinsurance through our branches in other countries. With the IIO we will be able to offer insurance, in dollar denomination or other foreign currencies, to our customers.”

GIFT IFSC has seven operational International Banking Units (IBUs) of both public and private banks. “So far, seven banks have started their operations at IFSC. This is the first insurance player to become operational at GIFT-IFSC. Very soon, we expect players from the capital market to also start functioning from the IFSC,” said Ajay Pandey, MD, GIFT-IFSC.

The banks that have started operations include SBI, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, YES Bank, Federal Bank and IndusInd Bank with their respective IFSC Banking Units (IBUs) at GIFT IFSC.

Collectively, business of these IBUs has crossed the $1-billion mark, a milestone achieved in eight months by GIFT-IFSC, said Pandey.

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