New remittance capability reaches millions of Indians abroad, says Pramanick
EbixCash World Money Limited on 21 July became the first Authorised Dealer Category-II (AD-II) entity in India to be granted a perpetual RBI licence with an expanded scope of permitted activities — a regulatory milestone no other AD-II player in the country has achieved. The upgrade follows a landmark revision to the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) framework in May 2026, under which the Reserve Bank of India opened trade remittances of up to Rs.25 lakh, and family maintenance remittances, to AD-II entities for the first time.
For an industry where trade remittance has been the exclusive preserve of banks and AD-I institutions, this is a structural shift. EbixCash World Money — already India’s largest AD-II network — is now the first non-bank entity in its category authorised to carry that flow, putting it in direct reach of the MSMEs and SMEs that banks have historically underserved.
India’s MSME exporters and importers have long faced a structural bottleneck: to send or receive payment for goods and services abroad, they needed a full banking relationship, often with slower turnaround and heavier documentation. EbixCash World Money’s upgrade removes that bottleneck. Backed by a licence built for permanence — not renewal cycles — and a mandate that now spans trade remittance and family maintenance, the company is positioned to become the fastest, most accessible route for cross-border MSME payments in India.
“This is the moment nearly three decades of building trust with the regulator pays off. We are the first AD-II in India to be handed this licence, and we don’t take that lightly — it’s RBI’s endorsement of everything we’ve built in governance, compliance, and customer protection since 1999. Our vision extends well beyond this licence. A perpetual licence isn’t handed out lightly, and an expanded activity scope on top of it is rarer still. RBI is trusting us with a wider mandate because our compliance architecture has been tested and proven, transaction after transaction, and audit after audit,” said TC Guruprasad, Managing Director & CEO, EbixCash World Money Limited.
“Being first carries weight — every trade remittance we process under this licence will set the benchmark for how the rest of the industry is expected to operate. We intend to meet that standard, not just today but for every transaction that follows,” he said.
“This licence upgrade does not arrive in isolation — it lands on top of an infrastructure stack EbixCash World Money has spent years assembling. The company holds RBI approval to maintain Nostro accounts, a capability historically reserved for banks, enabling it to settle cross-border transactions directly rather than routing through third-party correspondent banks,” elaborated Himanshu Pramanick, Chief Compliance Officer, EbixCash World Money.
“It is also a Principal Member of both Visa and Mastercard, operating multicurrency prepaid travel cards across more than 12 currencies — giving Indian travellers and businesses a ready-made rail for spending abroad. Together with the new trade remittance and family maintenance mandate, these capabilities give EbixCash World Money one of the most complete non-bank cross-border payment stacks in the country — from settlement, to remittance, to spend,” he said.
India’s MSME and SME sectors transact billions of dollars in cross-border trade every year, yet remain among the most underpenetrated segments for formal, fast, and transparent international payment services. With trade remittances of up to Rs.25 lakh now within its licensed scope, EbixCash World Money can serve this segment directly — without the friction of a full banking relationship — while its family maintenance remittance capability extends the same reach to millions of Indian households with dependents or obligations abroad,” Pramanick noted.
“The company’s distribution network — over 100 branches across 70+ cities, plus a presence at 20+ international airports — gives it an on-the-ground reach that few non-bank players in this space can match, turning a regulatory upgrade into an immediate, executable market opportunity,” he highlighted. Fiinews.com
