The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) has been established as a unified regulator to develop and regulate financial products, financial services and financial institutions in the International Financial Service Centres (IFSCs) in India.

The Fund Industry has been playing an increasingly important role in intermediating between seekers of capital and investors. IFSC has been actively engaging with stakeholders to enhance the Global reach of GIFT-IFSC. The regulatory approach has been to benchmark with Global Standards and adopt a facilitative framework to provide ease of operations for seeker as well as provider of capital.

IFSCA, in its endeavour to develop a comprehensive and consistent regulatory framework based on global best practices with a special focus on ease of doing business, has constituted an Expert Committee on Investment Funds to recommend to IFSCA on the road map for the funds industry in the IFSCs. The Committee has been constituted under the Chairmanship of Mr. Nilesh Shah, MD, Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Co. Ltd. The Committee comprises of leaders from the entire Fund Management ecosystem including from areas such as technology, distribution, legal, compliance, and operations.

The constitution of the committee can be accessed through the following weblink:

https://ifsca.gov.in/IFSCACommittees

While the committee has been constituted to holistically review the Global best practices and make recommendations to IFSCA on the roadmap for the industry, the following shall be the specific terms of reference of the Expert Committee:

a. To recommend IFSCA on long term vision for operations of Investment Funds in IFSC.

b. To make recommendations with respect to structure of Investment Funds in IFSC. The recommendations may be two-fold:

i. Short term in nature that can be implemented by IFSCA immediately (i.e. less than 3 months). Such suggestions may fall under the exclusive regulatory purview of IFSCA.

ii. Recommendations that may be implemented in mid-term (6 months to 1 year). Such suggestions may also pertain to regulatory purview of other regulators.

c. To identify issues that may be critical for development of the Investment Funds industry at IFSCs including inter-regulatory issues.

d. Any other relevant item on building the ecosystem inter-alia on asset managers, hedge funds, PE, VC, sovereign funds, family offices, and the accompanying professional services.

Expert Committee on Investment Funds to recommend roadmap and regulatory measures for fund operations in IFSCs. Constitution of an Expert Committee on Investment Funds by the International Financial Services Centres Authority to recommend a roadmap for investment fund operations in IFSCs, including: a long term vision; recommendations on fund structures with short term measures implementable by the Authority and mid term measures potentially involving other regulators; identification of critical and inter regulatory issues; and proposals to build the ecosystem across asset managers, hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, sovereign funds, family offices and professional services.