Published on October 08, 2025
Tata Business Excellence Group’s (TBExG) Treasury Forums offers a platform for the exchange of ideas and sharing of expert perspectives, enabling Group companies to leverage these for enhancing excellence at every level. This is what led Tata Play, too, to use innovative solutions to manage its foreign exchange transactions.
Tata Play was seeking to optimise its foreign currency transaction processes, particularly for import payments. Traditionally, these transactions were routed through standard bank accounts. This involved multiple currency conversions and incurred significant charges, leading to inefficiencies and higher costs.
Due to its India-centric and import-driven operations, Tata Play was not eligible to open a bank account in GIFT City, a financial hub designed to facilitate international trade. This limitation resulted in elevated foreign exchange conversion costs and operational challenges in managing USD inflows and outflows. To mitigate currency risk, the company also relied on hedging strategies, adding further complexity to its treasury operations.
Through its participation in the 7th Treasury Forum Meet, hosted by Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) in 2024, Tata Play deepened its understanding of innovative solutions for managing foreign currency transactions. The session featured Neeraj Gambhir, Group Executive – Treasury, Markets & Wholesale Banking Products, Axis Bank, who presented a comprehensive outlook on major currencies and shared strategic approaches to managing forex risk. His insights covered the use of the INR as a settlement currency, recent changes in External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) and Overseas Direct Investment (ODI) guidelines, interest rate risk management, and the transformative role of the GIFT City in building resilient financial ecosystems.
Adding further depth to the discussion, Sushil Burnwal, Head–Treasury, Tata Technologies, introduced GIFT City, India’s first operational smart city dedicated to international financial services. He highlighted how investments in fixed deposits within GIFT City can serve as an effective cash-pooling structure for corporates. This approach offers multiple advantages, including centralised liquidity management, optimised returns, enhanced risk mitigation, regulatory compliance, and tax efficiency.
After evaluating available options and consulting with multiple banking partners, Tata Play opened an exchange earners’ foreign currency Exchange Earners’ Foreign Currency (EEFC) account with Standard Chartered Bank subsequently. This strategic move enabled the company to retain USD inward remittances and utilise them directly for outward payments, thereby eliminating unnecessary conversion charges and improving overall efficiency in foreign currency management.
Business KPI impact of this initiative: GST on foreign exchange conversion and forex rate difference on USD buying/selling has resulted in savings of ~INR 10 lakhs per annum.
Verbatim:
Setting up the EEFC account with Standard Chartered Bank has helped us simplify our foreign currency transactions in a meaningful way. By retaining USD inflows and using them directly for payments, we have reduced conversion costs and improved process efficiencies. It has also helped us avoid regular hedging, making our foreign transactions smoother.
— Atish Gadodia, Assistant General Manager—Treasury, Finance, Tata Play