London played host to the second UK-India Financial Markets Dialogue (FMD) this week, to advance collaboration across financial services.
The FMD was led by senior officials from His Majesty’s Treasury on the UK side and India’s Ministry of Finance, and involved independent regulatory agencies from both countries. They reviewed cooperation across six core themes: banking; payments and cryptoassets; insurance and reinsurance; capital markets; asset management; and sustainable finance.
Strengthening financial cooperation is one of the key objectives of the UK-India 2030 Roadmap and the British government noted that two-way investments support nearly half-a-million jobs in each other’s economies, with India accounting for the UK's second-largest source of investment in terms of number of projects.
Alex Ellis, British High Commissioner to India, said: “Closer, deeper and broader financial cooperation between the UK and India offers huge potential to deliver jobs and prosperity for people in both countries. The breadth of themes discussed in today’s Financial Markets Dialogue demonstrates that.
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“The UK Prime Minister and Chancellor have set out a clear plan to drive UK growth. India is one of the world’s fastest growing economies and today’s dialogue shows how growth in both economies can benefit each other. We share deep bilateral ties and business interests; British banks were the first international banks to set up in GIFT City. We also remain committed to agreeing an ambitious and mutually beneficial free trade agreement and both sides are working hard to deliver this.”
At the FMD, participants reviewed developments in respective banking and insurance sectors, including identifying emerging areas for collaboration – such as a knowledge exchange on regulatory frameworks for pension funds. The meeting explored the scope to deepen cross-border trade and investment through the asset management sector. Discussions also covered the G20, sustainable finance, and capital market cooperation. Both countries agreed to hold the next Financial Markets Dialogue in India in 2024, following an Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD) between the two Finance Ministers later this year.
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The FMD also included presentations from business leaders, including the launch of a new paper on ‘Harnessing the Power of FinTech and Data’ from the India UK Financial Partnership (IUKFP). The co-chairs of IUKFP, Bill Winters and Uday Kotak, committed to continue to facilitate greater links between the countries’ fintech, capital markets and pensions ecosystems.
