- Winvesta, which is based in India, has revealed a new multi-currency account based in the UK for Indian residents – with no fees levied on incoming payments, though there will be set-up fees and fees on outward payments.
- The cash will be protected by Barclays, and the scheme as a whole will fall under the Reserve Bank of India’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme’s rules.
- “Winvesta doesn’t expect customers to seek interest, but investors are likely to use the account to mitigate the rupee depreciation by keeping in any of the currencies they’d like to hold in,” said a senior figure at the company.
A firm in India has announced a new multi-currency account offering free incoming payments.
The firm said that its new account would charge $5 as a one-off set-up fee.
From there, any outward online payments made would cost $1 as a flat fee – though there would be no charge at all for inbound payments.
The service will be offered to those who are residents in India – though the accounts will be based in the UK.
Cross-border payments will effectively need to be made by the account holders to use the accounts.
This will be capped at $250,000 a year as part of the Reserve Bank of India’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme’s rules.
Winvesta is permitted to offer the accounts and will be stored in Barclays accounts, it is believed.
It is understood that Winvesta is also looking at the prospect of offering a debit card that comes as part of the account.
In a statement, a senior figure at the firm pointed out that the bank accounts would not deliver interest.
Swastik Nigam, a co-founder of Winvesta, added that this would reduce the local tax burden.
“These accounts do not bear interest, and this avoids the investors from needing to file local taxes,” he explained.
“The interest rate in the UK is anyway very meagre at 0.1%. However, the British pound is up approximately 10% against the rupee over the last year.”
He pointed out that this could have different impacts on investors compared to ordinary consumers.
“Winvesta doesn’t expect customers to seek interest, but investors are likely to use the account to mitigate the rupee depreciation by keeping in any of the currencies they'd like to hold in,” he said.
He went on to explain a little more about the process involved in actually executing the remittance.
“You will have to make the initial remittance to the account from your Indian bank through the RBI’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS),” he said.
“However, thereafter, you can keep the money in a currency of your choice and convert between them at minimal cost.”
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