Tools · Tool 06
FCNR(B) or NRE:
the break-even exchange rate
FCNR(B) pays less but stays in your currency. NRE pays more but becomes rupees. This works out how far the rupee must fall before FCNR wins.
How much are you depositing?
FCNR(B) deposits come in six currencies. A few banks add one or two more.
For how long?
FCNR(B) runs one to five years. NRE can run to ten, but there is nothing to compare it with past five.
What are the two rates you have been offered?
Both from your own bank, for the same term. Ask for them together. Banks rarely quote them side by side.
Arithmetic, not advice, and not a forecast. The break-even is where the two deposits land in the same place. Nobody knows where the rupee will actually be.
No bank's rates are stored here. The RBI publishes guidelines, not rates, so every bank sets its own. Yours is the only place the figures bind.
Sources: Reserve Bank of India, FAQs — Accounts in India by Non-residents, as on 16 January 2025, for the account rules and the tax position; State Bank of India's FCNR(B) page for the five-year limit and the six currencies. Checked 20 September 2026. FCNR(B) compounds on a 360-day year at 180-day intervals and NRE quarterly, so your bank's maturity figure will differ a little. Ask it.
The exchange rate is the daily mid-market reference rate of the European Central Bank and 97 other central banks, cross-rated against the rupee by Frankfurter. Your bank's rate will be worse. What that costs.
Not sure which risk you are being paid for?
The rate is the easy half. Which account the money belongs in, and what it costs to get it back out, is the half that decides.