Which Bank Is Best for E-commerce Exporters in India? 11 Banks' Published Charges Compared

Why do per-remittance charges decide this comparison for e-commerce exporters?

A B2B exporter might receive one large LC-backed payment a month. An e-commerce exporter selling through Amazon, Etsy, eBay, or via Stripe and PayPal receives dozens to hundreds of small inward remittances a year. Weekly or fortnightly settlements, per marketplace, per currency. Any charge levied per remittance therefore multiplies by that count, while one-off charges (portal setup, an occasional certificate) stay flat.

That is why the widest real-money spread in this dataset is the humble inward remittance handling head. Published schedules run from "Free" and "NIL" to INR 1000 per remittance. At 300 settlements a year, that is a spread of roughly Rs 3 lakh a year on published figures alone. Before conversion commission, certificates or EDPMS closure charges. No portal feature is worth that kind of recurring gap, which is why this page leads with charges and treats portal capability as the tie-breaker.

Everything below is transcribed verbatim from each bank's own published schedule of charges, with the effective date the bank prints (or "date not stated by bank"), a link to the source document, and a staleness flag. Where a bank publishes no head for a service, the cell says "not published". Which is not the same as free. GST applies in addition to most charges. For how FEDAI rules frame what banks may charge exporters, see FEDAI rules on exporter bank charges .

What does each bank publish for inward remittance handling charges?

This is the head an e-commerce exporter pays most often. All 11 banks publish something here, but on different units (per remittance, per payment, per transaction, per return, and in DBS's case a per-currency correspondent deduction) so amounts are not directly comparable row to row. Amounts are kept verbatim; no conversion or averaging has been applied. All figures are as published, effective on the date shown.

What do FIRC, e-FIRC, FIRA and eBRC certificates cost at each bank?

Every marketplace settlement eventually needs paper: a FIRA or e-FIRC to evidence the inward credit (see how FIRA download works), and an eBRC per shipping bill for DGFT benefits (see eBRC for e-commerce settlements). Banks price these on different units (per FIRC, per certificate, per document, per SB/GR realisation) and several publish combined "export certificates" heads covering both, so amounts are not directly comparable row to row.

eBRC is a separate head at most banks. Since DGFT moved to exporter self-certification, the bank's role is pushing realisation data. But several banks still price a per-certificate or per-shipping-bill head for it. All figures as published, effective on the date shown.

What conversion commission, SWIFT and courier charges apply on top?

Commission in lieu of exchange (CLE/CILE) is the charge a bank applies when it earns no exchange margin on a forex transaction. Relevant when settlements arrive pre-converted or are routed to EEFC accounts. Banks price it on wildly different units: percentage of transaction value, a paise-per-USD slab, or a flat amount per transaction. Amounts below are verbatim; they cannot be averaged or ranked.

SWIFT charges matter to e-commerce exporters mainly on tracers and remittance-linked messages; courier charges bite when physical documents move. SWIFT is priced per message but the message type differs per row (LC issuance vs remittance vs tracer), so only like-for-like message types are shown here. Remittance-related messages where the bank publishes one.

What do EDPMS regularisation, write-off and GR-waiver actions cost?

Every shipping bill an e-commerce exporter files eventually needs an EDPMS closure. And when marketplace fees, returns or unsold inventory leave a shortfall, that closure becomes an extension, an invoice reduction, a write-off or a GR waiver, each separately priced. Banks split this bucket very differently: what is one head at one bank is five at another, and units range from per SB to per quarter to a percentage. Compare at the sub-head level. For the mechanics, see EDPMS for shipping bills under Rs 10 lakh and EDPMS reporting .

Which banks let you handle disposal, FIRA and EDPMS closure in the portal?

Charges are half the friction; the other half is whether each recurring task is self-serve or a branch visit. Portal capability was researched for six banks from official documentation only. PORTAL means the bank documents a self-serve flow; BRANCH means the bank documents a branch/paper process; where no official evidence exists either way, the honest answer is confirm with your relationship manager. Never assume.

Two patterns stand out. First, only Axis Bank and ICICI Bank document self-serve inward remittance disposal and EDPMS regularisation in their portals. The two tasks an e-commerce exporter repeats most. Second, and more telling: not one of the six researched banks documents a self-serve FIRA download inside its portal. Canara Bank is the only bank that says anything definite, and what it says is "branch". Its portal research records FIRC/e-FIRC as bank-issued certificates priced at Rs.200 flat each in the annexure read for that research, with no official page showing a self-service download inside net banking or FX4U. For every other bank the retrieval channel is simply undocumented. The single most-searched bank-portal task for exporters is the one no portal officially delivers. Plan for a branch or RM loop on every FIRA you need, whatever bank you pick.

Count last year's marketplace and gateway settlements across all currencies. Weekly Amazon disbursements alone are ~52 per marketplace per year. </>), soThat: (<> This number multiplies the per-remittance handling head. At 25 remittances a year a Rs 0 vs Rs 1,000 spread is Rs 25,000; at 300 it is Rs 3,00,000. Below roughly 50 remittances a year, portal convenience and certificate charges start to matter as much as the handling head. </>), }, , { ask: "Are you comparing the same unit?", check: (<> The unit column of each head: per remittance vs per transaction vs percentage-with-minimum vs paise-per-USD slab vs account-variant pricing. </>), soThat: (<> A 0.12% minimum Rs 2000 CILE and a flat INR 5000 CILE cross over at different ticket sizes. Compute both at

your

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FIRA by payment provider

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What would a year of published charges add up to for one illustrative exporter?

Spreads become concrete only against a volume profile. The worked example below takes one illustrative e-commerce exporter and multiplies out the flat, published per-unit heads of three named banks. It is illustrative arithmetic on published charges. Not advice, not a ranking, and not a total cost of banking: percentage-based conversion commission, GST, SWIFT/courier and EDPMS actions are excluded because their units or triggers differ, and one of the three schedules states no effective date.

An e-commerce exporter receives 300 inward settlements a year (Amazon weekly disbursements across two marketplaces, plus Stripe and PayPal payouts), asks the bank for 12 FIRA/e-FIRC certificates (one a month), and needs 60 eBRC-linked issuances. All amounts below are verbatim from each bank's published schedule linked in the tables above. </> } result= >

Sources: Axis Bank Schedule of Charges for Trade and Forex Transactions w.e.f. 10-07-2026; Federal Bank Service charges and fees. Forex and Trade Services w.e.f. 01-05-2024; IDFC First Bank wholesale banking trade fees and charges page (no effective date stated). All as read August 2026, exclusive of GST. Excluded lines noted above make this arithmetic incomplete by construction. It compares only the flat published heads shown.

E-commerce exporter bank comparison checklist

Before you choose or switch

• Count your inward remittances for the last 12 months, per marketplace and gateway. This number weights every per-remittance head
• Get the current schedule of charges in writing from each shortlisted bank; do not rely on the published PDF where it is stale (HDFC 2014, Kotak 2018, Bank of Baroda 2022, DBS 2023) or undated (IDFC First, Standard Chartered)
• Ask specifically for the inward remittance handling head, the FIRA/e-FIRC issuance charge and channel, the eBRC head, and the CILE/conversion commission with its minimum
• Compute percentage heads at your average settlement size. Minimums (Rs 1,000. Rs 2,000) usually bind on marketplace-sized tickets
• Ask the RM to demonstrate inward remittance disposal and EDPMS regularisation in the portal before onboarding; only Axis and ICICI document these flows officially among the six researched banks
• Confirm the FIRA process end to end. No researched bank documents self-serve download, so establish the request channel, turnaround and fee now, not at GST-refund time
• Price the EDPMS tail: regularisation per bill, extension, write-off and GR waiver heads for your typical small-value shipping bills, plus any per-quarter follow-up heads
• Ask about courier and SWIFT recovery where the schedule publishes no head. Not published does not mean free
• Recheck the schedule annually: three of the current schedules in this comparison took effect in 2026 alone (Axis 10-07-2026, Canara 02-02-2026, ICICI 01-04-2026)

Update history

• 2026-08-18 First published.