Vested Finance ties up with SBM Bank for forex transfers

In February this year, Vested Finance raised $3.6 million as part of its seed funding round, which saw participation from US-based Moving Capital, Ovo Fund and TenOneTen Ventures. The new solution is called Vested Direct. 

Vested is registered as an investment advisor with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

“Traditionally, Indian investors looking to invest in US funds like Apple, Amazon, Facebook & Microsoft, had to use their existing bank accounts to transfer funds. This involved multiple steps and investors had to incur high foreign exchange markups and fixed transfer charges. The transfer would take up to 5 days. With Vested Direct, the process is a significantly better experience with simple steps to initiate a transfer, lower charges, and a faster deposit timeline,” the company said in a release.

“With this product, we have worked along three lines – cost, speed and transparency. First, let’s come to cost. Clients transferring their money to their US brokerage account will not face a fixed charge. They will only face a forex mark-up of 1.2%. Second, if the transfer is done by 3 pm, the money will be credited into their account the same night. Third, you can track the entire transaction on our app or website,” said Viram Shah, CEO, Vested Finance.

According to Shah, clients can open a zero-balance SBM account completely online. For now only people that have CKYC (Know your Customer) can access Vested Direct. For the first transfer a 12-month bank account statement or Income Tax Return will need to be provided due to RBI regulations. Once the account is open, they can then transfer any amount in rupees to the SBM account and place a request to move it to their US brokerage account. Of course there is an RBI limit of $25,000 for online transactions and that is something for clients to note.”

Speaking on the partnership, Neeraj Sinha, Head- Retail & Consumer Banking, SBM Bank India, said, “We believe banking is meant to solve problems and collaboration is the key to sustained solutions. Partnering with Vested Finance is in line with both our beliefs –making the challenge of overseas investing seamless for end users while empowering Vested to create a credible and accessible global investing platform. This partnership with Vested Finance will enable Indian investors to geographically diversify their portfolios in a smarter manner.”