With the ability of Indians to invest overseas, subject to an annual $200,000 cap, a new dimension has been added to our investment diaspora. While it is still too early to account for the extent of the capital movement through this opportunity, anecdotal evidence points to considerable interest among people wanting to invest overseas.

Some of this is already seen in the interest in overseas investment opportunities through mutual fund schemes that invest part of their corpus in foreign equities.

Though there is still a limited choice of investments established by the regulator. What I expect to happen is that Indian investors will start investing in areas of interest and in diversification of risk through the platforms provided by financial services intermediaries.

A broader awareness and the ability to get a one-stop advisory, banking and execution service is needed. I believe that for financial intermediaries, this opportunity is scalable.

We are looking to create products that will allow aggregation and have specific purposes of investments. For instance, we can provide a product that invests in property in Europe.

There’s also opportunity to provide broking and execution facilities to deal in overseas markets.

In the next couple of years there will be strong momentum building up in flows overseas as financial intermediaries and regulators come together to establish parameters for various types and levels of product offerings.

By Alok Vajpeyi, Vice-chairman and MD, Dawnay Day AV Financial Services