GIFT IFSC Banks Disburse $52.82 Billion Under RBI Swap Facility

The International Financial Services Centres Authority, or IFSCA, set out on 2 September 2026 how much foreign currency the banks at GIFT City have brought in. The unit that does this work is called an IFSC Banking Unit, shortened to IBU. Twenty of them are taking part.

The swap facility

The Reserve Bank of India runs a special swap facility for FCNR(B) deposits. FCNR(B) stands for Foreign Currency Non-Resident (Bank), an account in which a non-resident Indian may hold a deposit in foreign currency. As on 31 August 2026, the twenty IBUs had sanctioned USD 54.02 billion under it. Of that, about USD 52.82 billion had already gone out.

The pace of the last fortnight of August was the striking part. Sanctions stood at USD 28.60 billion on 14 August. They reached USD 37.26 billion on 21 August. By 31 August they were at USD 54.02 billion.

Two other channels

External Commercial Borrowings are the second channel. Between April and August 2026 the IBUs paid out USD 11.62 billion of them. The monthly figure rose from USD 1.54 billion in April to USD 3.54 billion in August.

Bond listings are the third. Indian banks raised USD 11.12 billion through listings on IFSC exchanges over the same five months, and USD 9.17 billion of that came in July and August alone.

Where the money comes from

The IBUs are drawing on several markets at once. The release names the United Kingdom, the United States, Mexico, West Asia, Hong Kong, Singapore and some African countries. The push followed a direction from the Union Finance Minister to the heads of public sector banks, asking them to use the GIFT-IFSC ecosystem for the Reserve Bank's swap facilities.

IFSCA Chairperson K. Rajaraman said the scale-up shows GIFT-IFSC working as a bridge between global pools of capital and India's financing needs. IFSCA itself is the single regulator for financial products, services and institutions in India's International Financial Services Centres, set up under the IFSCA Act, 2019. GIFT-IFSC is a strategic project of the Government of India and works towards the Viksit Bharat 2047 agenda.