Bharat Connect forex carries 1 rupee in 6,000 sent abroad

Economy No. 22 21 September 2026 · 1 min read

The RBI has added 5 currencies to its forex service on Bharat Connect: the euro, pound, Canadian dollar, Swiss franc and UAE dirham. The move was announced on 9 September at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai by RBI Deputy Governor Rohit Jain.

Bharat Connect is the RBI's bill payment network, run by NPCI, where a biller joins once and can then accept payments through any app on the network. Around 22,700 billers have been onboarded so far.

Since October 2025, forex has also been available on Bharat Connect, allowing users to buy dollars, load a forex card or send money abroad through apps such as BHIM and MobiKwik. But the numbers show that the service is still tiny.

Between April and July 2026, it handled ₹11.19 crore, or about $1.2 million. In comparison, Indians sent $7.23 billion abroad under the RBI's Liberalised Remittance Scheme between April and June alone, including $3.81 billion for travel.

So, Bharat Connect handled roughly only 1 rupee for every ₹6,000 sent abroad, despite getting an extra month of activity.

The RBI has been trying to make retail forex cheaper and easier for years. Its FX-Retail platform has offered individuals the interbank exchange rate since 2019, but usage has remained modest because of uneven bank onboarding and low customer awareness.

Now Bharat Connect is putting the same service inside apps people already use, and usage is growing: the service handled around ₹45 lakh a month in its first 6 months and ₹2.8 crore a month in the next 4.

What resident Indians sent abroad under the RBI's Liberalised Remittance Scheme from April to June 2026, in $ million, by purpose: holidays and card bills $2,371 million, education $1,675 million, investing abroad $1,059 million, money to relatives $905 million, gifts $683 million, everything else $541 million, $7,234 million in all. Next to them, forex bought on Bharat Connect from April to July 2026: ₹11.19 crore, about $1.2 million, a bar too small to see. About 1 rupee in every 6,000.

Timeline, August 2019 to September 2026. August 2019: RBI opens FX-Retail, a website to buy dollars at the bank-to-bank rate (RBI notice). October 2025: it goes into apps like CRED and MobiKwik via Bharat Connect, dollars only (RBI release). July 2026: ₹13.9 crore of forex bought in 10 months, says NPCI Bharat BillPay. August 2026: Deputy Governor Rohit Jain says use has stayed modest for years (RBI speech). September 2026: 5 more currencies, euro, pound, Canadian dollar, Swiss franc and dirham (NBBL release).

Sources