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GIFT City can develop into a regional treasury hub says JPMorgan's global payments head
- •JPMorgan’s global payments co-head Max Neukirchen believes India’s payments ecosystem is entering a new phase after addressing the UPI economics debate.
- •The bank views India as a critical growth market and an essential innovation hub for global transactions, real-time payments, and digital solutions.
- •JPMorgan plans to deepen its footprint by leveraging India's expanding global capability centre ecosystem and its presence in GIFT City.
- •Neukirchen highlights that GIFT City has strong momentum and the potential to develop into a regional treasury hub.
- •Cross-border payments remain one of the strongest growth areas, supported by infrastructure connecting UPI with real-time schemes globally.
Key Questions Answered
JPMorgan has been active in GIFT City for several years, starting with trade finance and foreign exchange, and is now expanding its on-the-ground payments capabilities to meet client demand. The firm believes that GIFT City has strong momentum and can develop into a regional treasury hub. Furthermore, JPMorgan is in discussions with over 100 multinational corporations exploring banking and payment solutions to establish corporate treasury centres at the financial hub.
India is a key innovation center because many solutions deployed globally by JPMorgan, such as QR-code-based experiences and real-time cross-border payment capabilities, are developed locally and scaled across its worldwide network. Additionally, the country acts as a massive growth market with strong demand from global companies operating domestically and Indian firms expanding internationally, using payments as the connective tissue for cross-border activity.
UPI is recognized as a uniquely transformative payments innovation that has placed India on the global payments map, with global companies increasingly leveraging it. JPMorgan supports cross-border growth by providing infrastructure and helping connect UPI with other real-time schemes to make cross-border transfers faster, cheaper, and more widely accessible. As blockchain has yet to fully deliver at scale, real-time networks like UPI provide an opportunity to interconnect and unlock the cross-border use case.
