GIFT City is finding it difficult to attract international brokers due to strict, trade-by-trade reporting rules. While Indian investors are increasingly using the hub to access global markets, the lack of easier account structures—common in hubs like Dubai and Singapore—remains a barrier for foreign firms, limiting service variety for local users.
Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, known as GIFT City, is currently trying to establish itself as a competitive international financial center. While the hub has seen a rise in the number of Global Access Providers, which reached 18 by July 2026, it is struggling to bring in major foreign brokerage firms. The current user base is heavily skewed, with nearly 90% of participants being Indian investors accessing global stocks, rather than a mix of international and domestic players.
Reporting Rules Create Operational Friction
A primary reason for the hesitation among foreign brokers is the difference in regulatory compliance. In established financial centers like Singapore and Dubai, brokers typically follow periodic compliance reporting. In contrast, GIFT City requires transaction-level disclosures. This means intermediaries must report every single trade they execute. While regulators argue this granular data is necessary to monitor the Liberalised Remittance Scheme and prevent money laundering, foreign brokers view this as a significant operational burden that increases their cost of doing business.
Structural Barriers Limit Scalability
Beyond reporting mandates, the absence of an omnibus account structure prevents foreign brokers from operating efficiently. An omnibus structure allows a broker to group multiple client accounts into a single master account, which helps maintain client privacy and streamlines operations. Without this model, international brokers struggle to comply with data transfer laws in their home jurisdictions, creating legal and technical risks. Furthermore, the lack of prime broking services—where traders can manage capital across different markets from one pool—limits the efficiency that professional global traders require.
What This Means for Investors
For Indian investors using GIFT City to diversify their portfolios, these barriers mean fewer choices. When major global brokers find it difficult to set up or scale operations, Indian users have fewer platforms to choose from, which can sometimes lead to higher costs or limited access to specific trading features found in more mature markets.
The next important phase for the center will be how the International Financial Services Centres Authority balances the need for strict transparency with the operational flexibility that global firms demand. Investors and market watchers will be tracking whether regulators introduce reforms, such as omnibus account frameworks or streamlined reporting, to make the environment more attractive to international brokers, which would ultimately offer more competition and better services for the end user.