Bitcoin Forum

Received the below communication from ICICI Bank today early morning. Does this mean they will be closing the accounts of everyone involved in bitcoin trading?

We would like to bring to your notice the below important information on permissible usage of card transactions involving foreign exchange:
Under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), 1999, a resident Indian is permitted to make only those foreign exchange transactions on ICICI Bank Cards or Account that are permissible and remittance in any form towards overseas exchange trading through internet/ electronic trading portals is not permitted.
Indian residents are therefore prohibited from trading in foreign exchange in domestic and overseas market, including binary option trading with commodities, stocks, indices, bitcoin index and forex etc.
Please make note of the prohibitions on using your ICICI Bank Cards or Account for such unauthorised transactions in contravention to the FEMA and the regulations issued thereunder and that violation(s), if any, would attract action under the extant laws and regulations against such residents.

In case such transactions are noted on your ICICI Bank Cards or Account, we shall be constrained to close your card or account without any liability or responsibility on the part of the bank.

Looking forward to your co-operation in helping us serve you better.

Sincerely,
 
Rohit Poddar
Head - Privilege Banking

wow this is bad ... First Kotak now ICICI

Are u using Zebpay,Unocoin or some other international exchange? If u are using international exchange and i would advice you to use local exchange If u are using local exchange like zebpay then it doesn't come under FEMA. I am also using ICICI services but have not faced such issues. If you are using local exchange and still they are telling you about FEMA rules then you can simply go to court as i would do the same thing.

It's not new, and not related to bitcoin. In FEMA rule you can't use your card directly to any exchange outside India for trading. You are lucky, they are just closing account, otherwise you did broke rules and Police can come to your home.

Good to know about this ..

Well OP did you use credit card or debit card ?

I sold some crypto on Zebpay, coinome and koinex and withdrawn INR to my ICICI Bank account.
Is it breaking any rule?

As long as you declare everything in Income Tax, you should be fine. 

Banks are doing this by way of abundance of caution. I too received a notice from HDFC asking me to politely stop purchasing Virtual Currencies.

India is one of those countries where earning money is frowned upon. Doing business involves fulfilling a lot of regulations and procedures. Most small business in India aren't savvy enough to hire a corporate lawyer or a team for this. So obviously, they look for ways around regulations. This is one reason that GST has been a back breaker for a lot of small businesses.
Handling Forex is one of these things. It is kindda illegal to possess an international currency if you cannot declare a source for it. The same i suppose stands true for the bitcoin exchanges that don't have base in India.

Such communications are bad news for those delving into BTC trading. The part of the communication that says
If you have withdrawn INR generated from one of the Indian websites by selling BTC, that shouldn't really be taken in the category of "remittances". But they are talking about remittances towards overseas exchanges. That means if you are trading on foreign exchanges in any way, then that is not permitted.

Though it begs the question that how do they assume that you are trading and making "remittances towards foreign exchange"??

Friend got a similar message from the bank. He was using credit card to make USD payments to cex.io. so that qualifies as a remittance - and is against the rules of the bank and FEMA.

As for other FUD spready here - you won't go to prison for this as FEMA is a civil offence only and going after small amounts (<5 lakh) is not worth the RBI or ED's administrative resources.

Well if you declaring all your income properly for Income TAX Return then you shouldn't be worry and i suggest start using Axis / SBI Bank from now on . I do not know about credit card purchases but for debit card i do use a lot for PayPal and many other International crypto platforms and there is never ever any question or mail to me about it . Only thing keep in mind that never ever receive Bank Wire direct to your bank account if not coming from your family member abroad .

https://rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/notification/PDFs/N20RB29574DA17294D5C93E4951B2FC86666.PDF  FEMA ACT revised again in Nov 2017 all sections about the act is available

Does it mention anything about crypto? I couldn't find any.

on cryptocurrency , neither FEMA mentioned anything nor IT act , govt should clear its stand .

Buying BTC from exchanges other than the ones established in India is a bad idea, as far an Indian citizen is concerned. It is the same with trading forex with foreign brokers - there are strict Foreign exchange rules regarding this - my suggestion would be to respect them and never take them lightly.

I don't think any bank will close your account for buying BTC from Indian exchanges like coinsecure,unocoin etc..people have been buying for years now.

Well also in addition buying crypto with Credit card is most bad idea , cause you would be using Bank's funds for it and Bank has complete right to stop you to do that . Never got any message or notice from bank for my usage on international .

It's not on FEMA original paper but on banks website showing FEMA rules, banks mention you can't buy crypto. Banks may have invented their own FEMA rules.

Do u mean sending money to fully compliant Japanese exchanges from India and receiving from them using SWIFT code is illegal?

This is old news, they keep saying this but never act on it. Part of the reason being the whole shabang is untraceable.
Tip : get a B2 account if its available in your city and stick to it. Back when I was trading actively I used my B2 account extensively. Will not go into the details of the entire turnover but it was a lot. And this was after RBI made their rules more stringent in (and after) 2008.

Yes. Totally. Many banks have written it in fine print.


B2 is useless piece of crap. You can only transfer 25k INR through it.
Edit: it's not available anymore for new customers.

Can u provide some authentic link to substantiate your claim?

Just use Moneypolo and transfer to any exchange accept SEPA Transfer .

How to send money to a Moneypolo account from an Indian bank and how to receive back from it? Is it any different from sending to and receiving from a Japanese Bitcoin Exchange?

Using Debit or Credit card for purchasing crypto-currency from any exchange outside INDIA is a violation to FEMA act,1999. This is a bank policy from quite long time and crypto has nothing to do with it. So if you want to purchase BTC, you should use Indian exchanges like Zebpay, Unocoin etc.

Register with them and make yourself verified level 2 and you can use freely . Simply upload funds via your card 4.17% cost plus exchange rate from INR to EUR / USD cost approx 4% then transfer SEPA to any exchange accept EUR . This way you are not depositing to Direct crypto exchanges and besides you will get VISA Physical card from Moneypolo for your cash withdrawals which limit 2000$ per day and which good addition too . Also you can use withdrawals via Cash method via Muthoot Finance , Manapuram Money transfer which affiliated with Moneypolo .

Here you go, https://www.hdfcbank.com/assets/popuppages/forex_rbi_guidelines.htm

Swift transaction is illegal on at least three individual points.
2. IV) altered your assets which is not allowed
2 VI) transferred amount to account which doesn't belong to your close relative. Beneficiaries accounts last name should be same with sender's account last name. This has only one exception if you are going outside for education then you can transfer to your own account name.
2 VIII) bought Bitcoin or such virtual currency.

Government has a really simple option to get a list of all illegal international transactions done till now all they have to do is cross check sender's last name with beneficiaries last name. if they are not same most of these transactions become illegal then and there. Government hasn't done it till now that does not mean they will never do it in future.

again bad news first from kotak now from ICICI bank. they are asking to give money transaction details. it is difficult to provide. why they are asking all details about transactions.

I Am dealing with ICICI bank form long time and all altcoin and bitcoin is purchased from icici bank account only they never blocked my account
there may be some other reason

Which is what makes it the absolute best type of account for newbie traders. I personally never encountered the cap because I never let my individual transaction volume exceed 20k. 

PS: You can get new B2 accounts by filling out the form in the branch. The city has to support b2 banking though.

i am also feeling sad about this news. first this will happen in kotak again in ICICI Bank. so what will happen in the next step. i have doing transactions with ICICI Bank itself.

Did you miss the part where we've been saying that this is nothing new? Or did you even read the responses at all?