IFSCA vide circular dated 11 July 2024, allowed Resident Individuals to open Foreign Currency bank Accounts (FCA) with IBUs in IFSCs for all permitted capital and current account transactions. Further to the same, owing to operational challenges IBUs were unable to open FCA for Resident Individuals.
Accordingly, in order to provide guidelines to IBUs for opening and maintaining FCAs for Resident Individuals, IFSCA issued a circular on 10 October 2024 providing certain clarifications.
However, IFSCA has now issued an updated circular on 13 December 2024 superseding the earlier circular providing following key guidelines / clarifications:
1) Resident individuals are permitted to deposit unutilized funds from their FCAs in Fixed Deposits, provided the tenure of such deposits does not exceed 180 days.
2) Resident individuals are allowed to remit funds directly into their FCAs from locations other than onshore India provided that such remittance represents funds duly remitted earlier under LRS or income earned on the investments made from funds duly remitted earlier under LRS.
3) IBUs are also encouraged to facilitate the opening of FCAs digitally through internet and mobile banking platforms, ensuring a smoother customer experience.
These updates provide much-needed operational clarity for IBUs, ensuring smoother processes for FCA opening for resident individuals while aligning with IFSCA’s regulations and facilitating greater flexibility.
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