India to attract $80-85 billion through RBI’s concessional swap facility scheme: SBI research

SBI Research's latest Ecowrap has suggested that India could attract $80 to $85 billion under the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) concessional swap facility scheme to encourage foreign currency inflows. It added that the total inflows under the scheme till July 17 was about $20 billion which includes Foreign Currency Non-Resident (Bank) or FCNR (B) deposits worth $17.406 billion, Overseas Foreign Currency Borrowings (OFCBs) of $1.97 billion and External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs) amounting $1.342 billion. The trend suggests that public sector banks are major drivers of this mobilisation.

On June 5, 2026, RBI introduced the swap facility as part of a host of measures to strengthen India's balance of payments and incentivise capital inflows. The facility is available up to September 30, 2026 for the FCNR (B) deposits, and up to December 31, 2026 for the OFCBs and ECBs. Meanwhile, the report noted that despite Indian rupee’s initial positive response to the announcements, the euphoria fizzled out soon as the hopes of an amicable solution between the US and Iran diminished, energy prices remained volatile, and FPIs turned cautious (against good inflows in debt markets and some stability in equity flows during June).

In fiscal 2026-27, the report expects an additional $75 to $85 billion in the capital account and inward remittances to cross $150 billion. Further, strong FDI inflows of $15 to $18 billion and better FII inflows in the second half of the fiscal are expected. Thus, the overall balance of payment is expected to be in surplus of more than $50 billion for FY27 as against previous estimate of $65-70 billion deficit. Subsequently, the current account deficit would be in the range of 1-1.2% of GDP for 2026-27.

RBI's latest data showed, that FCNR-B deposits garnered $17 bilion in early scheme mobilisation, making the FCNR B high interest rate scheme a massive hit.