For Ritesh Kumar Singh, founder of research and advisory firm Indonomics Consulting Pvt Ltd, getting paid by his clients—most of which are based abroad—comes with an associated heartache. For every overseas payment that comes in, bank margins on the foreign exchange (forex) prices result in him losing about 2-3% of his income.
In August last year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country’s central bank, presented a solution for small business owners like Singh. It launched FX-Retail, a retail forex trading platform that anyone—from individuals to small businesses and payment banks—could log on to and book a forex price at or near market rates.