PayPal India hits reboot with bank withdrawals

PayPal confirmed late last week that the Reserve Bank of India had given it the go ahead to restart bank withdrawals in the country for settlements for exports of goods and services.

However, the company's Asia-Pacific boss Farhad Irani warned that personal payments remained switched off.

"We are currently making changes to comply with Indian regulations for settlements for exports of goods and services, and we anticipate that as of Wednesday, March 3rd, we will be able to resume the bank withdrawal service," he said in a PayPal blog post.

"As part of the changes, you will be required to fill out a new field entitled ‘Export Code’ when you request a withdrawal. This information is required under the current laws of India in order to identify the nature of cross-border merchant transactions."

The RBI told PayPal to get its house in order by getting specific approvals to allow personal inward remittances to India, which Irani admitted the firm doesn't currently have.

"Until we get these approvals, personal payments into India will remain suspended," he said.

"We know the past few weeks have been difficult and I would like to assure you that we have been working tirelessly to resolve the situation and restore our service. PayPal’s highest priority is to always ensure we comply with all applicable regulations everywhere we do business around the world."

Last month the online payment service suspended transactions in India and confirmed that the shutdown was because of questions over whether personal payments were remittances - payments from ex-pat Indian workers. ®