India has seen a leap in the past few decades with its acceptance of modern solutions to everyday financial tasks. And international money transfer is more efficient and sophisticated than ever before. About 12% of all worlds’ remittances are to and from India as per the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs making India the largest remittance recipient globally.
Inward and Outward Remittance
Transfer of electronic funds or wire transfer as it is popularly known comprises of two processes. Inward remittances that allow funds to be transferred to a recipient in India, and outward remittances that enables fund transfer from India to a recipient in a foreign country.
Wire Transfer is one of the simplest modes of sending and receiving money to your employees, family and friends in India. And yet, there are strict electronic wire transfer banking regulations enforced by the government to be adhered to by you and by the third-party service providers to ensure smooth and timely transactions. Let us explore the different ways one can perform these transactions.
Wire Transfer via your Bank
Wire transfer through banks is the most popular because it is the most secure and the fastest system for international transactions. They have online, and offline facilities and details such as name of bank of correspondence, currency of transfer, purpose of remittance, bank account number of the recipient and finally the SWIFT Code are provided.
The international transfer fee will be subjected to the amount of transfer, the currency, international money transfer tax of the country, and the service commission of the banking institution.
The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) issued code for international financial transactions are provided to exchange messages securely between banks through the recognised channel, to ensure complete safety for your money.
Here are the general guidelines while transacting through banks:
– Your Name, the bank account number overseas, overseas address, email ID and contact number is clearly included in the transfer message sent by your bank
– For timely processing, mention the purpose of remittance
– Credits to other banks in India requires beneficiary bank IFSC code and address
– The BIC and SWIFT code of the intermediary bank is currency-specific and not bank-specific
– Fixed deposits do not need account number
– Do not include your NRO or NRE savings account details while remitting funds for FCNR deposit, to avoid conversion of funds to INR.
– RFC deposits can only be in EUR, GBP, USD and JPY currencies
– FCNR deposits can only be in EUR, GBP, USD, AUD, CAD, JPY, CHF, HKD and SGD currencies
– The minimum amount for an FCNR or RFC account is according to the currency of interest
– If the form for wire transfer in your local bank does not mention details of the correspondent bank, place a request to mention it for transfers to India
Global Payment Services
Send international payments through offline payment service providers like Moneygram and Western Union and online Gateways such as CC Avenue, EBS, Citrus Pay, etc.
Key points to note while using service providers for international money transfer are:
– Transact international money from participating agent locations around the world
– Wire transfer laws states that businesses are not permitted to use an offline service provider for financial transfer
– Transfers through agent location does not require bank accounts, credit cards or citizenship papers, require valid government-issued photo identification
– Online transfers require agent-recognised credit or debit card
– Some service providers also send money through your phone/mobile network providers
– There is a maximum limit, for example, USD 2500 for remittances to India set by the RBI
Research the medium of transfer international money thoroughly and pay attention to current exchange rates imposed by both countries involved in the transaction.