State-owned Indian Bank is looking to raise $2 billion through foreign currency non-resident (FCNR) deposits under the Reserve Bank of India’s new scheme.

The Chennai-headquartered bank has so far raised $140 million in fresh FCNR deposits from the period the RBI offered swap facility to lure flow of dollars into the country and protect the rupee from weakening. 

“We are quite hopeful that between $1.5 billion to $2 billion we will be able to raise by September-end this year. This fresh inflow can be taken through FCNR deposits and external commercial borrowings. We are seeing a lot of traction and already have a pipeline of $1 billion,” said Indian Bank managing director and CEO Binod Kumar.

As of March 2026, Indian Bank had an outstanding balance of around $457 million in FCNR (B) accounts. 

The lender currently offers a rate of interest of 6% on FCNR (B) deposits, up from 5.5% earlier. 

The RBI has kept the forex swap window open for FCNR (B) deposits from 8 June until 30 September, with maturities of three to five years. Under this scheme, the RBI will fully absorb the currency hedging cost that banks had to earlier bear on such deposits. 

For making the FCNR (B) deposits lucrative to the NRIs, the RBI has removed interest rate caps so that banks could offer higher rates on them. For banks, it also provided exemptions from cash reserve ratio (CRR) and statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) on such deposits. 

State Bank of India (SBI) has reportedly raised over $1.5 billion in FCNR deposits. 

Indian banks are expected to garner over $50 billion through FCNR deposits by September-end, according to various market estimates.