Cryptocurrency and overseas forex trading banned in India

Cryptocurrency and overseas forex trading in India can lead to freeze of your saving account. Many banks in India have started sending emails asking their customers not to do any kind of overseas forex trading which includes electronic / internet trading portals or by use of Credit / Debit Cards.

ban on overseas forex trading india

Here is one such email sent by popular ICICI Bank to its customers.

As per extant Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines*, resident Indians are not permitted to make remittances in any form towards overseas forex trading (including through electronic/internet trading portals or by use of Credit/Debit Cards). However, RBI has observed that despite the above instructions, such transactions continue to be undertaken by resident Indian individuals.

Any person residing in India, collecting and effecting/remitting payments directly/indirectly outside India in any form towards overseas forex trading through electronic/internet trading portals or Credit/Debit Cards is in contravention of the Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999 (FEMA)*.

We thus strongly advise you against utilising your Credit/Debit Cards issued by ICICI Bank Limited or your bank account with us, for such unauthorised transactions.

As and when ICICI Bank Limited comes across any such prohibited transaction undertaken by any customer, we will close the concerned card or relevant Savings Account and report the same to the RBI.

*Please refer to the RBI circular on “Overseas forex trading through electronic/ internet portals” dated Sep 17, 2013 for further guidance in this matter.

In case you require any further information, you may write to us at customer.care@icicibank.com from your registered e-mail ID or call our Customer Care. 

Thanks for the tip, Manu!

We urge our readers to only do P2P trades as they are almost untraceable. You can do P2P trades on Remitano, Paxful and even Binance. Remitano and Paxful do not require you to do KYC which is a huge plus.