Bharat Connect adds five currencies to retail forex services via banks and digital channels
Bharat Connect has soft-launched multicurrency retail forex services, adding the euro, pound, Canadian dollar, Swiss franc and UAE dirham. Participating users can buy forex, remit overseas funds and reload forex cards, with a wider rollout planned after Controlled User Group testing.
What happened
RBI launched Bharat Connect multicurrency retail forex services, adding euro, pound, Canadian dollar, Swiss franc and UAE dirham. Users of participating
Key facts
- Five additional currencies: EUR, GBP, CAD, CHF and AED
- Forex transactions surpassed Rs 100 million between April and July 2026
Why this matters
The launch creates partnership opportunities with banks, fintech apps, forex-card issuers and remittance providers seeking a ready-made multicurrency distribution layer.
What to watch
- Number and tier of participating banks, wallets and travel-fintech distribution partners after the test phase.
- Published exchange-rate spreads, service fees, delivery timelines and daily or annual transaction limits versus banks, authorized dealers and neo-banks.
- Evidence of RBI compliance approvals, expanded permissible remittance use cases or changes to KYC and LRS workflow requirements.
- User adoption indicators: forex-card reload volume, remittance completion rates, repeat use and share of transactions initiated digitally.
- Launch of bundled travel offerings or loyalty incentives that make Bharat Connect a default pre-travel payment layer.
- Competitive fee cuts, doorstep-delivery expansion or bank partnerships from established forex and remittance providers.
- Expand participating-bank integrations and convert the Controlled User Group into a broader phased rollout.
- Add travel-adjacent journeys such as visa-fee payments, international education remittances, overseas insurance and flight or hotel partnerships.
- Use bank-account and KYC data to prefill documentation, set purpose-code workflows and offer transaction-status tracking.
- Introduce corridor-specific pricing, promotional zero-fee remittances or preferential forex-card reload rates to stimulate first use.
- Pursue additional high-demand currencies and merchant or ATM acceptance partnerships to improve the value of the forex-card proposition.