Forex trading platform for retail participants ready for rollout on Aug 5: RBI

The Reserve Bank on Thursday said foreign exchange trading platform (FX-Retail) for retail participants is ready for rollout by the Clearing Corporation of India Ltd (CCIL) on August 05. As a further facility for retail clients, the RBI said no transaction charges will be levied by the CCIL on transactions of customers if the transactions do not exceed USD 50,000 per day.

The FX-Retail platform can be accessed by any customer of a bank (through the website https://www.Fxretail.Co.In) who has a need to purchase or sell US Dollar against the Rupee for delivery on cash basis (same day), tom basis (next day) or spot basis (two days after date of transaction). Also, there is no cap on the number of transactions per customer during a day.

However, the total amount of transactions of a customer will be subject to the limit assigned by its bank. Further, the size of a single transaction is not allowed to exceed USD 5 million.

"A transaction charge of 0.0004 per cent shall be charged by the CCIL for transactions in excess of USD 50,000 per day," the RBI added.

The issue of "transparent and fair pricing" for retail users (individuals and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) in the foreign exchange market has been raised in various fora and in public interactions.

The RBI said such a mechanism will provide transparency, while enhancing competition and lead to better pricing for retail customers.

Banks may charge their retail customers a pre-agreed flat fee towards administrative expenses, which should be publicly declared.

"Overall, this would bring down the total cost faced by the retail customer in the foreign exchange market," the central bank added.

It further said that in view of the advantages of transparency and pricing to retail customers, as well as the systemic advantage of improved price discovery, banks shall facilitate on-boarding of retail customers to the platform expeditiously.