The Reserve Bank on Tuesday said bill payment system Bharat Connect has been linked with foreign exchange retail platform, enabling individual customers to buy US dollars in the form of currency notes, forex card load or for outward remittances at competitive prices. The linkage will enable individual customers maintaining bank accounts with participating banks to register and transact on the FX-Retail platform via enabled digital channels of participating banks and through Third Party Application Providers (TPAPs), RBI said. With the linkage, customers will be able to access USD through their preferred payment/banking apps integrated with the Bharat Connect or Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) platform.
The central bank further stated that the pilot is being made available to the customers of Axis Bank, Federal Bank, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India and Yes Bank. The customers of these banks can access FX-Retail through CRED and Mobikwik applications to purchase US Dollar against the Indian Rupee on a ‘value cash’ basis for foreign exchange outward remittances, loading of foreign exchange cards, and physical delivery of foreign currency notes, as offered by the respective participating banks. Additionally, the customers of Federal Bank and State Bank of India can also access FX-Retail through the internet banking applications of these banks. Going forward, the scope of the pilot will be gradually expanded to include more user categories, channels, banks, and TPAPs; and a wider range of forex transactions, RBI noted.