Banks play an important role in all foreign exchange transactions in India. All receipts and payments in foreign exchange are require to be settled in almost all cases through a bank authorised to deal in foreign exchange. Section 6 of FERA requires the bank to obtain a licence from Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to deal in foreign exchange, and such banks are the "authorised dealers" in foreign exchange. Indian national and persons of Indian origin resident abroad can open bank accounts in India freely, out of funds remitted from abroad in foreign exchange ,or out of funds legitimately due to them in India. RBI has granted general permission to "Authorised Dealers" to open such accounts freely, although in some cases the requests of Non-residents will have to be approved by RBI. Besides authorised dealers the RBI has permitted certain State Co-operative Banks, Scheduled Commercial Banks and Urban Co-operative Banks, which do not hold licences as full-fledged Authorised Dealers, but which fulfil the eligibility criteria, prescribed by RBI, to maintain Non-resident Ordinary Rupee Accounts (NRO Accounts) and Non-resident External Accounts in rupees. They cannot maintain Foreign Currency (Non-Resident) Accounts (Bank) Scheme. LIST OF BANKS AND OTHER INSTITUTIONS (AUTHORISED DEALERS) TO WHOM LICENCES HAVE BEEN ISSUED TO DEAL IN FOREIGN EXCHANGE A. Banks and others holding full-fledged licences 1. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. 2. Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank Ltd. 3. Allahabad Bank 4. American Express Bank Ltd. 5. Andhra Bank. 6. ANZ Grindlays Bank Ltd. 8. Bank International Indonesia 9. Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association 10. Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait B.S.C. 11. Bank of Baroda 12. Bank of Ceylon 13. Bank of India 14. Bank of Madura ltd. 15. Bank of Maharashtra 16. Bank Muscat International S.A.O.G. 17. Bank of Nova Scotia 18. Bank of Punjab Ltd. 19. Bank of Rajasthan Ltd. 20. Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Ltd. 21. Banque Nationale De Paris 22. Barclays Bank p.l.c. 23. Benares State Bank Ltd. 24. Bharat Overseas Bank Ltd. 25. Bombay Mercantile Co-operative Bank Ltd. 26. The British Bank of the Middle East. 27. Canara Bank. 28. Catholic Syrian Bank Ltd. 29. Central Bank of India 30. Centurion Bank Ltd. 31. The Chase Manhattan Bank 32. Chinatrust Commercial Bank 33. Cho Hung Bank 34. Citibank N.A. 35. City Union Bank Ltd. 36. Commerzbank A,G. 37. Corporation Bank 38. Credit Agricole Indosuez 39. Credit Lyonnais 40. Dena Bank 41. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft 42. The Development Bank of Signapore Ltd. 43. Development Credit Bank Ltd. 44. Dhanalakshmi Bank Ltd. 45. Dresdner Bank A.G. 46. Federal Bank ltd. 47. The Fuji Bank ltd. 48. Global Trust Bank Ltd. 49. HDFC Bank Ltd. 50. The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd. 51. ICICI Banking Corporation Ltd. 52. IDBI Bank Ltd. 53. Indian Bank 54. Indian Overseas Bank 55. Induslnd Bank Ltd. 56. International Nederlanden Bank (ING Bank) 57. Jammu and Kashmir Bank Ltd. 58. KBC Bank N.V. 59. Karnataka Bank Ltd. 60. Karur Vysya Bank Ltd. 61. Krung Thai Bank Public Company Ltd. 62. Lakshmi Vilas Bank Ltd. 63. Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank Ltd. 64. Mashreq Bank p.s.c. 65. Morgan Guaranty Trust Co. of New York 66. Nedungadi Bank Ltd. 67. Oman International Bank S.A.O.G. 68. Oriental Bank of Commerce 69. Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Ltd. 70. Punjab National Bank 71. Punjab and Sind Bank 72. The Sakura Bank Ltd. 73. Sangli Bank Ltd. 74. Sanwa Bank Ltd. 75. Sarawat Co-operative Bank Ltd. 76. SBI Commercial and International Bank Ltd. 77. The Sian Commercial Bank Ltd. 78. Societe Generale 79. Sonali Bank 80. South Indian Bank Ltd. 81. Standard Chartered Bank 82. State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur 83. State Bank of Hyderabad 84. State Bank of India 85. State Bank of Indore 86. State of Bank of Mauritius Ltd. 87. State Bank of Mysore 88. State Bank of Patiala 89. State Bank of Saurashtra 90. State Bank of Travancore 91. The Sumitomo Bank Ltd. 92. Syndicate Bank 93. Tamlinad Mercantile Bank Ltd. 94. Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. 95. Times Bank Ltd. 96. The Toronto Dominion Bank 97. UCO Bank 98. Union Bank of India 99. United Bank of India 100. United Western Bank Ltd. 101. UTI Bank Ltd. 102. Vijaya Bank 103. Vysya Bank Ltd. B. Institutions holding restricted authorisiation to deal in foreign exchange 1. Export-Import Bank of India 2. Industrial Credit & Investment Corporation of India Ltd. 3. Industrial Development Bank of India 4. Industrial Finance Corporation of India 5. SBI Factors and Commercial Services Pvt. Ltd. 6. Small Industries Development Bank of India Classification of Non Resident Accounts Non-resident accounts are based on (a) Repatriation : These are two types, namely Oridnary accounts without any repatriation facility and external accounts with full repatriation facility. (b) The currency of account : Non-residents can maintain their accounts either in Indian rupees or specified foreign currency mostly US& Pound Sterling, Deutsche marks or Japanese yen. Non-Repatriable Accounts 1. Non-resident Ordinary Rupee Account-NRO A/C -Savings, Current and Time Deposits 2. Non-resident Non-Repatriable Term Deposits -NRNR Accounts 3. Non-residents (Special) Rupee -NRSR Account : The scheme has been effective from 15th April, 1999. Repatriable Accounts: 4. Non-resident External Rupee Account – NRE A/C : Savings, Current & Time Deposits 5. Foreign Currency Non-resident Bank Deposits -FCNR-B Accounts. Two earlier schemes namely Foreign currency Non resident Accounts (FCNR) and Foreign currency (Ordinary Non repatriable) (FCONR) deposit scheme were discontinued in 1994. Acceptance of deposits under the FCNR scheme has been discontinued w.e.f. 15th August 1994. Deposits already accepted are however, allowed to continue till their maturity and thereafter no renewals would be permitted. Acceptance of deposit under the FCONR scheme has been discontinued with effect from 20th August 1994 and the existing deposits will not be renewed on maturity. |
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