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Informist, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026

 

--RBI: Got $136.38 bln under special schemes for foreign capital Jun 8-Aug 31 

--RBI: Got $127.27 bln FCNR(B) deposits under special scheme Jun 8-Aug 31 

--RBI: PSUs' external commercial borrow $3.89 bln Jun 8-Mon under scheme 

--RBI: Banks raised $5.26 bln via offshore FX borrow Jun 8-Mon under scheme 

 

MUMBAI – The Reserve Bank of India's special foreign exchange swap window attracted total foreign exchange inflows of $136.38 billion as of Monday, data from the central bank Wednesday showed. The pick of the schemes, foreign currency non-resident (banks) deposits, garnered $127.23 billion, of which a whopping $54.38 billion were received in the final 10 days of the scheme.

 

The RBI had cut short the deadline for the FCNR(B) swap facility, saying it would remain available only until Aug. 31, against the original deadline of Sept. 30. The other two swap facilities--for external commercial borrowings by public-sector undertakings and offshore foreign currency borrowings by banks--will remain open until Dec. 31, as announced earlier.

 

Overseas foreign currency borrowings contributed $5.26 billion while external commercial borrowings brought in $3.89 billion, data from the RBI showed. In June, the RBI had announced a swap window to boost foreign capital inflows under which it would bear the costs of hedging for banks converting funds raised through mobilisation of three- to five-year FCNR(B) deposits.
 

Officials from banks said a lot of existing FCNR(B) were closed prematurely to book new deposits at higher rates under the scheme. "A lot of premature redemption of deposits happened because of the higher rates, customers who were earlier waiting to book at the end of the scheme also brought in money now as soon as the early closure was announced," an official from the international banking department of a state-owned bank said.

 

RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra had told the Financial Express newspaper that the central bank expects the three schemes to attract at least $80 billion. Market participants had estimated that FCNR(B) deposits through the swap window alone could have garnered anywhere between $85 billion and $100 billion. However, the actual figures have surprised the market, dealers said. "We were expecting it to be more than $100 billion for sure, but no one would have thought of this number," a dealer at a state-owned bank said.  End

 

US$1 = INR 94.97

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Reported by Kabir Sharma

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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