the Foreign Exchange Management (International Financial Services Centre) Regulations, 2015.

Official text

RESERVE BANK OF INDIA

Foreign Exchange Department

Central Office

Mumbai- 400 001

Notification No. FEMA. 339/2015-RB Dated: March 02, 2015

Foreign Exchange Management (International Financial Services Centre)

Regulations, 2015

In exercise of the powers conferred by section 47 of the Foreign Exchange

Management Act, 1999 (42 of 1999), the Reserve Bank makes the following

regulations relating to financial institutions set up in International Financial Services

Centres, namely:-

1. Short title and commencement:-

i. These regulations may be called the Foreign Exchange Management

(International Financial Services Centre) Regulations, 2015.

ii. They shall come into force from the date of their publication in the Official

Gazette.

2. Definitions:-

In these Regulations unless the context requires otherwise , -

(a) ‘Act’ shall mean the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (42 of 1999);

(b) ‘Financial Institution’ shall include

(i) a company, or

(ii) a firm, or

(iii) an association of persons or a body of individuals, whether

incorporated or not, or

(iv) any artificial juridical person, not falling within any of the preceding

categories engaged in rendering financial services or carrying out financial

transactions.

Explanation: For the purpose of this sub-regulation, and without any loss

of generality of the above, the expression ‘financial institution’ shall include

banks, non-banking financial companies, insurance companies, brokerage

firms, merchant banks, investment banks, pension funds, mutual funds,

trusts, exchanges, clearing houses, and any other entity that may be

specified by the Government of India or a Financial Regulatory Authority.

(c) ‘Financial service’ shall mean activities a financial institution is allowed to

carry out as specified in the respective Act of the Parliament or by the

Government of India or by any Regulatory Authority empowered to regulate

the concerned financial institution.

(d) ‘Financial transaction’ shall mean making any payment to, or for the credit of

any person, or receiving any payment for, by order or on behalf of any person,

or drawing, issuing or negotiating any bill of exchange or promissory note, or

transferring any security or acknowledging any debt.

(e) ‘FMC’ shall mean the Forward Market Commission established under the

Forward Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1952 (74 of 1952).

(f) ‘International Financial Services Centre’ or ‘IFSC’ shall have the same

meaning given in Section 2 (q) of the Special Economic Zones Act, 2005 (28

of 2005).

(g) ‘IRDA’ shall mean mean the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority

established under the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act,

1999 (41 of 1999).

(h) ‘PFRDA’ shall mean the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development

Authority established under the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development

Authority Act, 2013 (23 of 2013).

(i) ‘Regulatory Authority’ shall include Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities

Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Insurance Regulatory Development

Authority (IRDA), Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority

(PFRDA_, Forward Market Commission (FMC) or any other statutory authority

empowered to regulate a financial institution under the Indian laws.

(j) 'SEBI' shall mean the Securities and Exchange Board of India established

under the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992 (15 of 1992).

(k) The words and expressions used but not specified in these Regulations shall

have the same meanings respectively assigned to them in the Act.

3. Any financial institution or branch of a financial institution set up in the IFSC and

permitted/recognised as such by the Government of India or a Regulatory Authority

shall be treated as a person resident outside India.

4. A financial institution or branch of a financial institution shall conduct such

business in such foreign currency and with such persons, whether resident or

otherwise, as the concerned Regulatory Authority may determine.

5. Subject to the provisions of Section 1(3) of the Act, and save as otherwise

provided in these Regulations or any other Regulations or directed by the Reserve

Bank of India from time to time, nothing contained in any other regulations shall

apply to a financial institution or branch of a financial institution set up in an IFSC.

(B.P. Kanungo)

Principal Chief General Manager

Published in the Official Gazette of

Government of India – Extraordinary –

Part-II, Section 3,

Sub-Section (i) dated 23.03.2015-

G.S.R.No.218(E)