The Central Bank of India announced on Friday the early closure of a preferential currency swap program for commercial banks. This decision was made a month ahead of schedule after the amount of funds raised exceeded fifty billion dollars. The Reserve Bank of India announced that banks will be able to use a zero-cost hedging instrument for foreign currency deposits until August 31, 2017, whereas the original deadline was September 30 of the same year. The program was introduced in June as part of a package of measures aimed at strengthening India's balance of payments.

Taking into account the high interest in the FCNR deposit currency swap program and the resulting large-scale inflow of foreign currency, the central bank decided to terminate the program ahead of schedule. Among the measures implemented by the regulator were special hedging instruments designed to encourage state-owned companies and commercial banks to raise funds abroad. In the period from June 8 to August 13, 2000, the central bank attracted fifty-two billion three hundred million dollars through FCNR deposits placed by banks. Another one billion seven hundred million dollars was received through the swap mechanism for external commercial borrowings, and two billion eight hundred million dollars came from foreign currency borrowings by authorized creditors.

The Reserve Bank of India separately said that the windows for external commercial borrowings and foreign currency borrowings will remain open until the end of the year in accordance with the initial plan.