Your simple guide to SBI Canada

SBI Canada is a subsidiary of State Bank of India (SBI), and gives customers access to SBI banking and financial services in Canada.

One of the popular services they offer are money transfers to India. Learn more about how you can transfer money to India with SBI Canada.

Sending money from India to Canada with SBI

SBI offers money transfer services for Indian citizens and residents to send money from their SBI accounts to bank accounts in Canada in Canadian dollars.

If you have an SBI account, you can start the process of your money transfer from the SBI personal banking website. Here are the steps for starting with a new international beneficiary and sending a transfer:

1. Log into your SBI personal banking portal
2. Click on your Profile
3. Click on “Manage Beneficiary”
4. Next click on “International Beneficiary”
5. Click on “Add” and put in the details of your beneficiary abroad
6. Provide your PAN details
7. Submit the details for registration
8. Once your beneficiary’s details are registered, log back into the portal
9. Click on Payments/Transfers and then International Funds Transfer
10. Choose your beneficiary from the list
11. Proceed with submitting your transfer request
12. Provide the OTP linked with your account’s mobile number
13. Submit the request

So keep that in mind when looking at the total delivery time if you are considering SBI for your global money transfers.

You can only add 1 beneficiary per day and only 7 international beneficiaries total with your SBI account. And you can only send a maximum of ₹50,000 within the first 5 days of a new international beneficiary.

You also have to provide an OTP sent to your mobile number to confirm your transaction, so keep your phone close by.

If you are sending money from India to abroad, you will need to follow the rules of the Liberalized Remittance Scheme per the Reserve Bank of India. These include:

• A maximum cap of sending the currency equivalent of USD $125,000 per year
• The remittance should fall into one of the approved categories, such as gifts, tuition fees, medical fees or family support
• If you are sending money as a gift, it can not be more than the currency equivalent of USD $75,000 over the course of the calendar year

SBI has additional regulations too:

• You can not send more than 4 transactions a month
• You can only send a maximum currency equivalent of $2,000 USD per transaction
• You can not send more than the currency equivalent of $96,000 in one calendar year

In addition to Canada, SBI foreign outward remittances also let you send money to these foreign countries:

• United States of America
• The United Kingdom
• Australia
• New Zealand
• France
• Germany
• Japan
• Singapore
• South Africa

Next, let’s take a look at the fees and transaction time with sending money abroad from India.¹

Fees and charges

With SBI in India, you’ll find there are two main fees on every transaction. The first is a transaction fee for the service, while the second is a hidden fee in the exchange rate you get.

The transaction fee is the equivalent of $10 USD per transaction.

The second exchange rate fee is harder to spot. To start, the exchange rate you see on Google is the mid-market exchange rate, and it is the same one used within banks because it has no markup. You get it with all Wise transactions too.

SBI actually sets their exchange rate to be weaker than the mid-market exchange rate. That way they can take a cut of every rupee you convert. But that small amount can start to add up to a large chunk of change on your transfer.

SBI’s exchange rate can take a large cut into your transaction, leaving you with less Canadian dollars to send. Simply by using Wise, you can send more money abroad than with SBI.

Time taken

SBI is not clear upfront on how long transfers take. But they can be estimated between 1-2 business days, on top of the additional day for registering a beneficiary.

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Sending money from Canada to India with SBI

SBI Canada helps Canadian residents and citizens with ties to India with banking needs.

You can access them online or go to one of the SBI Canada branches in Toronto, Mississauga, Scarborough, Brampton in Ontario, or Vancouver and Surrey in British Columbia.

SBI Canada also has the Yono SBI Canada Bank app to make transfers easy on your phone.

Opening an account in SBI Canada

Similar to SBI in India, you can not make a transfer unless you have an existing relationship with SBI.

If you are looking to get started, you can open an account online with SBI Canada.⁴

If you do have an SBI Canada account, it is fairly simple to start sending money back to India. Here are the steps to add a new beneficiary and complete a transfer:

1. Log in to the SBI Canada portal for personal online banking
2. Click on Transaction and then Manage Beneficiaries
3. Click on Add New Beneficiary and then select if it is for a fellow SBI customer or a different Indian bank
4. Provide all the details of your India beneficiary
5. Once your beneficiary is registered, head back to the dashboard
6. Click on the tab “India Remittance”
7. Choose your India beneficiary from the list
8. Proceed and submit your transfer

You can send a maximum of $20,000 CAD daily or $300,000 monthly. ⁵

Fees and charges

SBI Canada has two fees for sending money to Indian accounts- a transfer fee and an exchange rate fee. But getting hit with the transfer fee depends on how you complete your transfer.

The transfer fee is the charge from SBI for the service. If you complete the transfer at an SBI branch the fee is $10 CAD, but that lowers to $4.50 if you do it online. If you download the SBI Canada YONO app on iOS/Android, transfers to India are free.⁶

But it's never actually free, check out our table below for what this means for your wallet.

The other fee from SBI is actually hidden in the exchange rate. By giving you an exchange rate that is weaker than the one SBI uses themselves- called the mid-market exchange rate- they take a small sliver off of every conversion.

Exchange rate as of August 25 2021.

SBI tries to make their transfers cheaper with lower rates for digital transfers, but the hidden exchange rate fee makes a difference.

Wise, which uses the real mid-market exchange rate without a cut, still beats all three options when sending Canadian dollars to India.

Time taken

SBI Canada isn’t clear how long it will take to complete a transfer to India. You will only be able to find out once you have started a transaction.

Save when sending money to Canada with Wise

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And if you are already in Canada, check out the Wise multi currency account.

All sources checked as of 26 August, 2021