The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) has invited applications from eligible entities desirous of setting up and operating the international trade financing services (ITFS) platform at GIFT City in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

The ITFS platform would function from GIFT International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) for providing trade financing services.

The eligible entities are required to apply in the prescribed format along with supporting documents to the IFSCA by September 15, the regulator said in a statement on Tuesday.

IFSCA has been established as a unified regulator to develop and regulate financial products, financial services, and financial institutions in the International Financial Services Centres (IFSCs) in India. Currently, GIFT IFSC is the only international financial services centre in India.

Prior to the establishment of IFSCA, the domestic financial regulators, namely RBI, Sebi, PFRDA and IRDAI, regulated the business in IFSC.

IFSCA upon satisfaction in the first instance will grant an in-principle approval to operate in IFSCA Regulatory Sandbox environment for such period as it may consider appropriate, before allowing regular operations, it said.

The ITFS would be an electronic platform for facilitating the trade finance requirements of exporters and importers by providing access to multiple financiers, it said.

Once operational, it will play an instrumental role in arranging credit for exporters and importers from global institutions through factoring, forfaiting and other trade financing services at competitive cost, it said.

The platform is expected to be leveraged by exporters and importers across the world for availing trade finance services, thereby making GIFT IFSC a preferred location for international trade financing, it added.