The RBI on Thursday proposed a scheme to encourage transparent and fair pricing in retail forex market by developing a foreign exchange platform for retail participants along the lines of the FX-Clear platform of Clearing Corporation of India limited (CCIl).
As per the discussion paper floated in this regard, the retail market will have the same market hours as the interbank market (09:00 to 17:00 hrs). The minimum order size would be $1,000 and thereafter in multiples of $500. The maximum order size would be $500,000.
The foreign exchange market in India may be broadly divided into the interbank segment and the retail segment. The participants in the interbank segment are banks and transactions in this segment are conducted through trading platforms like FXT-D2 and FX-Clear.
Retail Customers with a need to buy/sell forex, currently do so over the phone with a bank. While proprietary electronic dealing platforms of individual banks and Multi-Bank Portals (MBPs) are also available, access to them is restricted to retail customers with a minimum order size.