Angel One Secures GIFT City Licence for International Stock Investing

Four of India's leading new-age brokerages — Groww, Zerodha, Angel One and Upstox — have secured regulatory permissions from the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) to provide Indian retail investors with access to US and other overseas stock markets.

According to IFSCA disclosures, Groww and Upstox received Global Access Provider (GAP) licences, while Zerodha and Angel One obtained broker-dealer approvals. The licences were granted to Zerodha and Groww on June 2, followed by Angel One on June 12.

Under the GIFT City framework, GAP licence holders can connect directly with US-based brokers for trade execution and settlement. Broker-dealers operate by partnering with GAP operators and American brokerage firms to facilitate cross-border trading for their clients.

With these approvals, the four platforms join existing GAP operators such as Vested Finance and IndMoney, which already enable Indian investors to buy and sell foreign equities. The Reserve Bank of India's Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) permits individuals to remit up to $250,000 per financial year for overseas investments, including international stocks.

Data from the Reserve Bank of India showed that Indian investors allocated approximately $440 million to overseas equities in March, a 43% increase from the $306 million deployed in the same month a year earlier. Trading activity in US equities reportedly surged by around 20% on June 14, driven partly by excitement around SpaceX's anticipated public market debut.

Zerodha Chief Executive Officer Nithin Kamath stated in October last year that the brokerage was preparing to offer US stocks on its platform and had already applied for the necessary regulatory clearances. GIFT City is also witnessing growing interest from payment companies evaluating the framework as a potential route for launching wallet-based services to facilitate international fund transfers and cross-border payment flows.