Proposed RBI framework set to give money-changing business a makeover

The stage is being set for integrated players: Those offering tourism-related services, forex and cards

Last week, Gautam Ashra, head of Kanji Pitamber & Co, a 103-year-old forex brokerage, got a buyout offer from a private equity firm. “I told them to wait; will think and let them know.” Firms like Ashra’s are in the spotlight in the backdrop of Mint Road’s ‘Draft Licensing Framework for Authorised Persons (APs) under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999’. This architecture was last subject to a review almost two decades ago (in March 2006); and the changes are expected to chisel a new ecosystem. Mint Road’s deadline for feedback to its draft ends today.

Among the proposed measures is