Kathmandu. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) special US dollar Indian Rupee Foreign Exchange (Forex) swap facility has brought in foreign exchange worth $143.596 billion as of September 18. Most of these funds have been mobilized through Foreign Currency Non-Resident (Bank), i.e. FCNR (B) deposits, RBI data showed.
According to the RBI, according to the latest data provided by authorized dealer banks, FCNR(B) deposits mobilized under the swap facility have reached $132.98 billion.
Similarly, Overseas Foreign Currency Boroughing ($5.32 billion) and External Commercial Boroughing ($5.296 billion) were mobilized in the fiscal year.
The facility was introduced by the Indian central bank on June 8. It was aimed at injecting new foreign currency into the banking system, strengthening India’s external financial buffer and supporting domestic liquidity.
Under this arrangement, banks could mobilize new FCNR(B) deposits with a tenure of 3 to 5 years and swap those foreign currencies with the RBI at a concessional rate. This was expected to help reduce the hedging cost of the banks.
The RBI’s move aims to increase the availability of foreign currency and further ease liquidity management in the banking system.
