BATF Service Providers - Professional Services Beyond the Captive Model
What this domain tests
The BATF domain tests IFSCA's framework for Banking, Accounting, Treasury and Finance (BATF) service providers - professional-service firms operating from GIFT-IFSC for clients, as distinct from captive GICs.
Core rules
- A BATF service provider is IFSCA-registered and may serve both group entities and unrelated third-party clients - the key difference from a GIC.
- Permitted services are non-regulated professional work: accounting and bookkeeping, payroll, financial reporting and consolidation, treasury and cash-management support, budgeting and MIS, compliance and regulatory reporting support, tax and transfer-pricing support, fund administration and valuation support.
- Prohibited: any activity requiring a separate IFSCA licence - accepting deposits, dealing or advising in securities for clients, insurance underwriting, payment services, or holding and pooling client money.
- Entry conditions are proportionate: a place of business in the IFSC, fit-and-proper promoters, prescribed net worth, qualified personnel, and AML/CFT procedures with client-identification records.
- Onboarding, outsourcing and data-protection arrangements must be documented, and confidentiality obligations run to each client.
Worked example
A firm wants to run fund administration and NAV computation from GIFT-IFSC for ten offshore funds, and one client also asks it to execute trades on an IFSC exchange. The fund administration is permitted BATF activity - accounting, valuation and reporting support. Trade execution is not: dealing in securities requires registration as a stock broker, and investment advice requires registration as an investment adviser. The firm must partner with a registered broker or obtain its own registrations.
Traps that cost marks
Treating BATF exactly like a GIC (BATF may take third parties); assuming BATF registration covers whatever a client asks for; ignoring the prohibition on handling client money; forgetting client-identification and record-keeping duties.