

RBI bans hedge rebooking, tightens related-party rules to curb rupee speculation
India’s central bank further tightened its forex curbs on Wednesday by targeting the rebooking of cancelled forex derivative contracts and tightening norms around related-party transactions.If a company or trader cancels a dollar hedge, they can no longer re-enter the same trade to benefit from price movements, limiting their ability to take directional bets under the guise of hedging.Separately, banks have been barred from undertaking foreign exchange derivative contracts with related parties, as defined under the Indian Accounting Standard (Ind AS) 2.Wednesday’s moves come after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) first capped banks’ net open positions (NOP) in the domestic market at $100 million at the end of each business day on 27 March.Then, on Wednesday, Mint reported that RBI had asked banks for data on positions taken by their corporate clients, with the exercise aimed at assessing on-ground positioning rather than signalling immediate regulatory actions.The new regulations have come into effect immediately.Together, these measures aim to curb one-sided positioning in the rupee, which has been hitting successive record lows.
The currency has fallen by 4.5% since the war in West Asia began on 28 February, and 11% in fiscal year 2026 (FY26) due to continuous selling by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs).Kunal Sodhani, head of treasury at Shinhan Bank, said the latest measures by the RBI mark a clear and coordinated shift towards tightening speculative activity and reasserting control over rupee dynamics.He added that the restriction on rebooking of cancelled forex derivative contracts closes a long-standing loophole that allowed market participants to roll over or reprice positions while presenting them as hedging.“In
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