Recently, an Indian bank is suggesting its customers not invest and deposit their money in any currency that is/are backed by cryptocurrency.
While this attitude of India towards crypto adoption has been a gray area from time to time since the initial days of Bitcoin since they are never sure of their decisions.
Recently, one of the largest financial services companies ICICI Bank has warned its consumers not to use any of its payment services to transfer any kind of crypto digital currency in the event of another setback to the Indian crypto community.
In their recent latest retail external payment application form, the bank has clearly mentioned its intention to prevent customers from using the service for crypto transfers. Based on the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) 1999, the statement states,
“Payments or purchases made in Bitcoin or in any other Virtual Currencies such as (Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, Dash, Peercoin, Dogecoin, etc. have been mentioned as not acceptable as per the rule.
The leading banking firm shared two other points that proved its anti-adoption stance, warning consumers not to use the payment service to invest in companies that deal with Bitcoin or any other similar digital asset.
In April 2018, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced ICICI Bank’s move to use FEMA 1999 against crypto adoption was in line with other banking players in the country, as it would ban banks from trading with crypto-related entities.
The Supreme Court has ruled against the Reserve Bank’s ban on crypto-friendly banks, as opposed to ICICI’s latest move to ignore crypto lovers. As a result of this confusion, Indian crypto investors will indeed find loopholes and other ways in the system to enhance their crypto portfolio.
Lack of regulatory clarity on crypto deposits will directly affect investors and the country’s fintech innovations sector, as government officials continue to postpone the mandatory dates while taking decisions on the crypto ban wave and thus making things unclear for the others.
While at the other end of this scenario WazirX, the largest cryptocurrency exchange and account holder in India, is trading with new customers due to the Reserve Bank’s clarity on lifting the ban following a Supreme Court ruling.
Read also: Increasing Demands In Crypto Industry, Fidelity Digital Assets Plans To Hire more Employees
