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UK and India hold Financial Markets Dialogue in London

The UK-India Financial Markets Dialogue (FMD) took place on 19 April in London to advance collaboration across financial services.

UK-India Financial Markets Dialogue in London

The FMD was led by senior officials from His Majesty’s Treasury and India’s Ministry of Finance, and involved independent regulatory agencies from both countries. They reviewed cooperation across six core themes: banking; payments and crypto assets; 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. British and Indian 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.

At today’s 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 between the two Finance Ministers later this year.

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.

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.

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.

Further Information

  • read the joint statement on the Financial Markets Dialogue
  • independent regulatory agencies participating today included the Reserve Bank of India, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, International Financial Services Centre Authority, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India, the Bank of England, and the Financial Conduct Authority
  • the creation of the UK-India Financial Markets Dialogue was agreed at the 10th Economic and Financial Dialogue in 2020 by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (formerly Chancellor of the Exchequer) and India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

Media

For media queries, contact:

David Russell, Head of Communications
Press and Communications, British High Commission,
Chanakyapuri, New Delhi 110021. Tel: 24192100

Media queries: BHCMediaDelhi@fcdo.gov.uk

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Published 20 April 2023