RBI puts in place revised currency swap arrangement framework for SAARC

The Reserve Bank of India, with the Government of India’s concurrence, has decided to put in place a revised framework on currency swap arrangement for SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries for the period 2024 to 2027. 

Under the framework for 2024-27, a separate INR (Indian Rupee) swap window has been introduced with various concessions for swap support in Indian Rupee.

The total corpus of the rupee support is ₹250 billion. The RBI will continue to offer swap arrangement in US$ and Euro under a separate US Dollar/ Euro swap window with an overall corpus of US$ 2 billion.

SAARC has eight member countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri-Lanka).

The currency swap facility will be available to all SAARC member countries, subject to their signing the bilateral swap agreements, RBI said in a statement.

The SAARC currency swap facility first came into operation on November 15, 2012 with an intention to provide a backstop line of funding for short term foreign exchange liquidity requirements or balance of payment crises of the SAARC countries till longer term arrangements are made.