What is a Global Capability Center (GCC)?

A Global Capability Center (GCC) is a centralized offshore unit established by an organization to deliver strategic services such as IT, engineering, analytics, finance, and R&D to support global operations.

What is an Offshore Development Center (ODC)?

An Offshore Development Center (ODC) is a dedicated team located in a different country that focuses primarily on software development, application maintenance, and technology support for a client.

What services are commonly delivered through a GCC?

GCCs provide services such as IT operations, product engineering, data analytics, cybersecurity, finance and accounting, HR services, and research and development.

What are the key benefits of setting up a GCC?

Key benefits include cost optimization, access to global talent, operational scalability, faster innovation, improved control, and long-term strategic value creation.

Which industries commonly use GCCs and ODCs?

Industries such as technology, banking and financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, telecom, and automotive commonly leverage GCCs and ODCs.

What locations are popular for setting up GCCs and ODCs?

Popular locations include India, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Philippines due to strong talent pools and cost advantages.

How long does it take to set up a GCC or ODC?

The setup timeline can range from a few weeks to several months, depending on factors such as location, scale, infrastructure requirements, and governance model.

Is a GCC or an ODC better for long-term growth?

A GCC is generally better for long-term strategic growth and innovation, while an ODC is ideal for rapid execution, flexibility, and short- to medium-term technology needs.

How do GCCs and ODCs help with cost optimization?

They reduce costs by leveraging lower labor expenses, optimizing resource utilization, minimizing infrastructure investments, and enabling round-the-clock development through time-zone advantages.

How is data security and IP protection handled in GCCs and ODCs?

Data security is ensured through strict compliance frameworks, secure infrastructure, access controls, legal agreements, and adherence to international standards such as ISO, SOC, and GDPR.

GCCs: Powering the Future of Fintech & Digital Banking

The last mile of an engineering and innovation process is the visible convenience when a customer in Lagos taps open a digital wallet and sees an instant loan decision, or when a rural merchant in Andhra Pradesh scans a tap-to-pay UPI QR and the payment is sent in a matter of seconds. That is being mapped increasingly within Global Capability Centres (GCCs), strategic centres which integrate engineering, data science, product design and regulatory expertise to drive the fintech and digital banking megawave.

Introduction

The fintech market is accelerating: industry projections project the global fintech market to be USD 340-395 billion in 2024-25 and expect further double-digit CAGR in the second half of the decade. India has established itself as the GCC powerhouse with approximately 1,900 GCCs, which provide approximately two million individuals with jobs and 64-65 billion dollars in revenue. This places India as a hub of the engineering base of global financial services transformation. Similarly, digital rails like India’s UPI have been setting volume records – a measure of the innovation of fintech products in day-to-day economic life.

The Evolution

GCCs started as captive IT and back-office centres based on the cost arbitrage. They have developed into product and research centres in over three technology cycles: the current GCCs have cloud-native engineering, AI laboratories, RegTech units and UX studios that create the customer experiences of the future. This development is of importance to fintech and digital banking, as it is shifting decisions nearer to the teams that are developing features like real-time payments, risk engines and embedded finance.

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The Playbook To Speed Up Fintech & Digital Banking

Digital Product Engineering (GCC digital banking)

To support banks in turning into neobanks, launching B2B embedded finance services, and creating modular payments stacks, GCCs create end-to-end digital banking platforms which are cloud-native, API-first, and mobile-first to be launched in shorter timelines than existing BU timelines. The outcome: condensed go-to-market and product experimentation velocity.

AI and Data Science Scale (Future of Fintech in GCC).

GCC data teams create predictive credit models, transactional-level fraud detectors and personal recommendation engines. Banks can introduce smarter underwriting and real-time decisioning in various markets with consolidated datasets and ML infrastructure within GCCs.

Security and Fulfilment (Digital Transformation Of GCC Banking)

GCCs have SOCs, operational behavioural fraud analytics, and privacy-preserving data archetypes in prototyping. As they are closer to product teams, the feedback loop between secure design and customer experience is less long, which is essential in terms of trust in digital banking.

Cross-Border Laboratories and Regulation Creativity (GCC Digital Economy)

GCCs tend to become transnational sandboxes where product, policy and partner teams pilot integrating open banking, tokenization, and CBDCs, coordinating product strategies to regulatory boundaries across borders.

Design and Human Experience (GCC Fintech Market)

Humanising fintech flows, GCC design focuses on UX research into microinteractions: onboarding, consent screens and recovery journeys that drop off and add to lifetime value.

Strategic Impact of GCCs on Fintech & Digital Banking

Domain	GCC Role	Strategic Benefit
Product Engineering	Build API-first digital banking platforms	Faster launches, modular scaling
AI & Analytics	Predictive credit & fraud models	Lower defaults, better UX
Cybersecurity	Continuous security engineering	Reduced risk, regulatory readiness
Compliance & RegTech	Localized regulatory automation	Faster market entry, lower penalties
UX & CX	Research-led localised design and testing	Higher activation & retention

Existing Events and Policy Tailwinds

This is being hastened by policy and technology developments. New statements on biometric authentication of online payments and the widening capabilities of online payments show how the national payments infrastructure is changing: both as an opportunity and an engineering requirement that GCCs must build new authentication, identity and privacy paradigms into products.

At the state level, specific GCC policies strive to increase the number of capability centres and employment further, which will indicate the further state support of GCC-based innovation.

Economic Benefits

Economies of scale — Centralised solutions eliminate redundancy between markets.
Concentration of Talents – Profound pools of specialists (data engineers, RegTech experts) become productive.
Quicker Innovation ROI – GCCs transform pilots into low-marginal-cost global rollouts.

Export Earnings and Jobs – GCCs invest in high-value jobs and high-service exports.

Looking Forward

GCCs will take on roles as Centers of Excellence in GenAI-related personal finance, digital identity solutions, and composable banking platforms over the upcoming 5 years. They will play a central role in bringing embedded finance to non-bank ecosystems, uniting real-time payments with loyalty, commerce, and credit. Winners in the ever-competitive GCC fintech market will be GCCs that incorporate product ownership, regulatory fluency, and cloud economics.

Conclusion

The control room is getting more GCC, and the front door of digital banking is user experience. The GCCs will deliver more than just a code; they will build operational resilience, cross-border scale, trust, and a quicker and safer customer experience. Aligning strategy to the best of the GCC is not an option anymore but the core of the future of finance in the eyes of banks and fintech bootstrappers alike.

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frequently asked questions (FAQs)

What is a Global Capability Centre (GCC)?

A GCC is an offshore facility of a multinational company that undertakes niche roles such as research and development, information technology service and strategic management.

What is the Stand-Up India scheme?

It is a government program that gives the women entrepreneurs up to 1 crore in bank loans to fund greenfield projects.

What are the challenges associated with women in tech?

Personal responsibilities and unconscious bias are the factors that lead to their mid-career attrition and slow them down in their careers.

What is the effect of women leaders in the innovation process?

They introduce new ideas, understanding, and team-oriented leadership that speeds up the advancement of such areas as AI and cybersecurity.

What does the future of women in the leadership of the GCC hold?

By 2030, women are expected to take up 25-30 per cent of GCC leadership positions, which will be paramount to the growth of the Indian market.

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Aditi

Aditi, with a strong background in forensic science and biotechnology, brings an innovative scientific perspective to her work. Her expertise spans research, analytics, and strategic advisory in consulting and GCC environments. She has published numerous research papers and articles. A versatile writer in both technical and creative domains, Aditi excels at translating complex subjects into compelling insights. Which she aligns seamlessly with consulting, advisory domain, and GCC operations. Her ability to bridge science, business, and storytelling positions her as a strategic thinker who can drive data-informed decision-making.