ICICI Bank asks customers not to use foreign payments for digital assets

The buzz around the new crypto regulatory framework has been ongoing in India for some time now. While the Parliament is unlikely to discuss the bill this month, one of the largest private lenders in India, ICICI Bank recently issued a statement asking its customers to not use foreign payment solutions to invest in digital assets.

This marks another step of the bank in its crackdown towards crypto trading. The updated remittance application of the bank includes a new declaration that remittance should not be used by customers to invest in virtual assets or purchase them.

Due to the recent developments, those who want to transfer funds out of the country now need to sign the declaration. The new declaration presented to Indians now also prevents residents from using the money that came from crypto investments for sending overseas.

Recently, the central bank of the country announced that the lenders were not able to deny services to crypto exchanges and traders according to the crypto trading ban, which was enacted in April 2018. However, many of the lenders in the country have suspended net banking services for those using cryptocurrency transactions.

Indian crypto trading laws

The regulatory uncertainty of the crypto trading market has been discussed for some time in India. However, uncertainty is expected to continue for some time in the future as well. It was reported recently that the much anticipated crypto trading bill in the country is not likely to be discussed by the Parliament in its coming session starting the following week.

The crypto bill is not listed as one of the topics that could be up for discussion during the Parliament “Monsoon” session. The main reason for this is that the government of the country still has not found a way to approach the digital currency market.

At the beginning of July, the Finance Minister of India, Nirmala Sitharaman talked about the crypto market in the country, indicating that the authorities still needed to approve the bill before it could be taken forward to the Parliament.

There might be several reasons behind the cabinet’s not-yet-facilitated approval. The first reason is that the cabinet simply did not have enough time to review the bill, while the second reason might be the fact that the bill was sent back to the Ministry of Finance for revision.

Some experts in the local crypto trading market claim that the government of the country and the Reserve Bank might have different views on how to approach the crypto and crypto trading market. A few months back, it was reported that the government was thinking of creating a new panel to study crypto regulations and the possibilities that the country had.

Some of the government members believe that the views of the former Finance Secretary were outdated and the market needs a new look and view that might be used to regulate the market rather than ban it.

Importance of regulations

Interest in the crypto trading market among Indian investors has been increasing for some time now. The younger tech-savvy generation of the country is very interested in the crypto trading market, and the development of a well-thought-out regulatory framework is very important for the country.