Hi friends,
I am a sole proprietor for a proprietorship firm. The nature of my work is to deliver custom made software in exchange for fees and I am currently seeking a bank account for this purpose. As such the bank that I approached seems to be unclear with the requirements for receiving payments from abroad. I have already opened an account with them.
I would like to know the RBI procedures for transfer of funds from my customers overseas (other countries) to my bank account. I would be open to receive payment from any part of the world and can include USA, UK, Australia, etc. I am in India but I will be receiving the money in US Dollars denomination. Over the course of my interaction with the bank, I learnt that this was the first time that this Bank branch is creating such kind of an account for me & they are very unclear with the procedures. Anything that they cannot prove to me in writing, they merely state it's an RBI rule. They even fail to provide sufficient references to such "rules". So even before I switch to another bank, I want to verify the authenticity of their statements. So following are my questions:
1. The bank tells me that that my prospective customers should send/transfer the money to a tie-up intermediary partner of this bank located in USA & then that bank would forward the funds to my account. Is this true? Is this an RBI rule to receive funds in such a way?
2. Will I need a separate license from RBI to receive funds? (When I was in USA, I have actually transferred funds from my account to my relatives account in India & I never had to get any license to do so, nor were my relatives asked to purchase any license to receive)
3. I would like to know about all the RBI International Electronic Funds Transfer System Procedural Guidelines. So if anyone can please post references or links to such rules in RBI website or any PDF file published by RBI that states those rules, that would be very helpful.
I just want to make sure that the bank will not take me for a ride. I am suspecting that something is not right because they are asking me to get the amount transferred to their intermediary bank first & then to my account. None of my friends(in USA) who transfer money from their accounts to their parents account ever bought a license. So it really gives me a doubt about the bank's intentions in asking me to accept getting funds transferred to their intermediary.
An early reply in this regard is highly appreciated.
Thank you.
