ICICI bank, one of India’s largest lenders, has warned its customers against using its international remittance services for transferring any form of cryptocurrency, the Bharat Express reports.
Fast facts
- The Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India recently made an amendment to an international remittance form compelling customers to declare: “The above remittance is NOT for investment/purchase of Bitcoin/Cryptocurrencies/Virtual Currencies (such as Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, Dash, Peercoin, Dogecoin, Primecoin, Chinacoin, Ven, Bitcoin or any other virtual currency/cryptocurrency/bitcoin)”.
- Customers of the bank were further warned that funds should not be transferred to businesses that deal in crypto, nor should funds be proceeds from any investments in cryptocurrency.
- Sathvik Vishwanath, the CEO and co-founder of Indian crypto exchange Unocoin, told Forkast.News in an interview he hadn’t seen many people trying to buy crypto outside of the country as the local industry was already quite mature. But reflecting on ongoing regulatory uncertainty, he added: “Bitcoin may not be supported by the government in the future for Indians. So, if we see it from that angle, I think there will be some individuals who don’t want to get exposure to the cryptocurrency directly in the country itself but are trying to get it out of the country. But that percentage is quite small.”
- Banking and other finance sector businesses in India have been trying to limit customers’ exposure to cryptocurrencies since the Reserve Bank of India issued a circular proclaiming a de facto ban on crypto in 2018. The circular was invalidated by the Supreme Court in March last year, and the RBI has since been forced to clarify that it was no longer valid. The status of crypto in the country remains uncertain pending the passage of legal measures relating to it.