News Update

India Invites UK Companies To Invest In Insurance Sector

• ByStartupStory     |    July 9, 2021

India has encouraged UK companies to invest in the insurance sector, while Britain offered its London market for direct listing of Indian firms. In 2021, the country has increased the foreign direct investment ceiling from 49 per cent to 74 per cent. Earlier, the government allowed firms to list overseas without simultaneous listing at the domestic market. To strengthen bilateral ties in the financial sector, the first meeting of India-UK Financial Markets Dialogue was held on Thursday late evening, a finance ministry statement said, adding the dialogue was established at the 10th Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD) in October 2020.The government-to-government discussion focused on four themes — GIFT (Gujarat International Finance Tec-City) City, India’s flagship international financial centre, banking and payments, insurance, and capital markets, it added. Following the government-to-government discussion, private sector partners were invited to the discussion, the statement said.

At the meeting, Indian and UK participants had also discussed some of the matters relating to the insurance sector, opportunities to encourage UK investment in the Indian market, including domestic updates on the impact of COVID-19, and the UK Solvency II Call for Evidence. Participants also took stock of capital markets corporations, it said, adding the UK outlined progress on regulatory reforms, including through the Wholesale Markets Review and the Lord Hill Listings Review. ‘Both sides agreed to continue to engage bilaterally on these areas in the coming months, in the run-up to the next EFD and the beginning of negotiations for a future India-UK FTA, both expected to take place later this year,’ it said.

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