India and the United Kingdom (UK) held the inaugural meeting of the India-UK Financial Markets Dialogue (‘the Dialogue’) virtually late evening yesterday. The Dialogue was established at the 10^th Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD) in October 2020 to deepen bilateral ties in the financial sector.

The Dialogue was led by senior officials from the Indian side by the Ministry of Finance and from UK, Her Majesty’s Treasury, with participation from Indian and UK independent regulatory agencies, including the Reserve Bank of India, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, International Financial Services Centre Authority, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India, the Bank of England, and the Financial Conduct Authority.

Discussions during the Dialogue were focused on four themes:

1. GIFT (Gujarat International Finance Tec-City) City, India’s flagship international financial centre,
2. banking and payments,
3. insurance, and
4. capital markets

Following the government-to-government discussion on these issues, private sector partners were invited to the discussion. The City of London Corporation’s Capital Markets Working Group presented their work on the Indian corporate bond market, and the India-UK Financial Partnership presented their recommendations on the UK-India financial services relationship, particularly on development of GIFT City as global services hub.

As two services driven economies, both sides agreed that there is significant scope for strengthening the financial services cooperation between India and the UK. They also concurred to continue to engage bilaterally on these areas in the coming months, in the run up to the next EFD and the beginning of negotiations for a future India-UK FTA, both expected to take place later this year.

Financial services cooperation strengthened through a bilateral Financial Markets Dialogue to deepen regulatory and market coordination. The inaugural Financial Markets Dialogue established a government-led forum, with regulator and private-sector participation, to deepen bilateral regulatory and market cooperation across GIFT City as an international financial centre, banking and payments, insurance regulation, and capital markets, and to continue engagement ahead of forthcoming economic forums and trade negotiations.