Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has made a announcement from the ongoing Global Fintech Fest 2025 platform in the country’s financial capital Mumbai, which is considered a milestone in India’s financial history. He launched the ‘Foreign Currency Settlement System’ (FCSS) in Gujarat’s Gift City. This is a revolutionary step that will completely change the methods of international trade and investment.
This decision has brought India to the queue of selected global financial centers like Hong Kong, Tokyo and Manila, where the deals in foreign currency are settled locally. This is not just a technical upgrade, but a strong sign of telling the world that India is now fully ready to become a big player in the financial world.
There will be foreign payment in the blink of an eye
Till now, whenever a company or institution in India used to do foreign currency, such as no transaction in dollars, it had to go through a long and complex process. It is called ‘Crescenspandant Banking’ system, in which money passed through the system of many banks and different countries. This entire process used to take 36 to 48 hours, ie about two days. Think, how big a headache would be for a businessman to stay stuck in the air for two days. Due to this, not only the speed of business was slow, but there was also a risk of market fluctuations.
Finance minister Has directly attacked this problem. He told that the new Foreign Currency Settlement System (FCSS) will end this wait. Now the transactions in foreign currency ‘real-time’ will be completed in the blink of an eye. This will make it easier for international companies working in gift city to manage liquidity management i.e. money. Their money will not be stuck, so that they will be able to increase their business more rapidly and efficiently. This step is a great improvement in the direction of ‘Ease of Doing Business’.
The world will see the power of India
The launch of this system in Gift City means that India has now joined the club of few countries which have the ability to deal with foreign currency transactions on their earth. Till now this facility was only with big financial hubs like Hong Kong, Tokyo and Manila. This is a huge achievement for the International Financial Services Center (IFSC) of India. This will strengthen the trust of investors and companies from all over the world.
How will this system work?
This new system will work like a dedicated payment gateway within the Gift City IFSC, which is specially designed for foreign currency deals. Whenever any two parties deal here in dollars or any other foreign currency, it will be settled immediately through this system, without including the bank of any outside country.