ICICI bank has now requested the customers on not using the liberalised remittance scheme that Reserve Bank of India offers for any investment associated to crypto. The bank has stated also the users to not make any fiat currency investment associated to cryptocurrency. On July 14, the news came out as a storm after several nationalised banks in May had stopped the payment gateways for not opting for the net banking services that involves cryptocurrencies.

India’s stand on crypto adoption:

India’s stand on crypto adoption has been quite in the Gray area already even after it’s the bitcoin existed. This quite seem like there is another blow for the community of the Indian crypto which came one of the biggest financial services that is ICICI bank. The bank has warned the users for not transfer any cryptic form or digital currency.

The declaration on ICICI reads, “The above remittance is not for investment / purchase of bitcoin/cryptocurrencies/virtual currencies (such as Ethereum, ripple, Litecoin, dash, peercoin, dogecoin, primecoin, chinacoin, bitcoin or any other virtual currency/cryptocurrency/bitcoin).”

This kind of move was decided as there are many nationalised banks already that have paused the payment gateways and have their net banking shut down for the merchants who trade in the cryptocurrencies selling or buying.

The response of Indian government:

Even if the users are awarded of not sending any funds using the crypto investments but the government of India has not been showing any resistance against the financial applications that are based on blockchain technology.

The move of ICICI is to use the FEMA 1999 against crypto adoption. It has been quite persistent along with some other banking players since RBI made an announcement of banning those banks who shall do business with forms that are related to crypto. However, the Supreme Court of India has clearly made the contradiction on the bank of RBI on crypto-friendly banks.

Shivangi Mujumdar

CBW - External Analyst

INDIA