Virtual Accounts vs. Local Banks: What 20,000 Indian Exporters Know That You Don’t
Imagine you’re an international buyer, say, a U.S. company, and your Indian supplier has sent an invoice asking you to pay into a “Skydo Virtual Account” instead of a traditional Indian bank. It’s natural to wonder: Is this safe and legal? The short answer is yes.
In fact, you’d be in good company: Amazon, Stanford University, Microsoft, and many others already use Skydo’s virtual accounts to pay their Indian vendors. Skydo’s virtual accounts are simply local bank accounts set up for each currency (USD, EUR, CAD, SGD, etc.) and are backed by real regulated banks. Paying into a Skydo account means you’re actually sending money to a major bank (in the U.S., Europe, Singapore, etc.), not into some anonymous wallet.
In practice, you wire dollars to a Community Federal Savings Bank (New York) account or send euros to a Barclays/IBAN account, and Skydo’s system credits the Indian exporter and provides them with the required digital paperwork (the FIRA) for RBI (India’s central bank, regulating the financial system) compliance. This process is faster, cheaper and more transparent than a traditional wire/swift transfer, and it comes with industry-grade security.
How Virtual Accounts Work – Faster, Cheaper, Transparent
A “virtual account” in Skydo’s terms works like this: when your vendor signs up with Skydo, they instantly get bank accounts in 10+ countries (USD, EUR, CAD, GBP, AUD, SGD, etc.). From the payer’s perspective, you just wire money to a normal-looking bank account in your country or region.
Behind the scenes, Skydo’s platform collects that money, converts it at real-time mid-market rates with a minimal fee, and remits INR to the exporter’s Indian account. This avoids the usual multi-bank wire chain and opaque fees of traditional FX. For example, Skydo charges a flat USD $19 for payments up to $2,000, or $29 up to $10,000, with zero hidden markups. The exporter covers the fee, so you can pay the full invoice amount without worrying about extra charges or deductions.
Unlike international wire transfers to Indian bank accounts, payments to a Skydo virtual account are treated as local transfers. That means you skip SWIFT fees, avoid lengthy settlement timelines, and don’t have to deal with repeated follow-ups from your supplier. Funds typically clear within 24–48 hours.
One reviewer of Skydo noted that using it was “an amazing experience … completely hassle free” for international invoicing In short, paying to a Skydo virtual account means your money moves as if it were a local transfer (often clearing in 24 hours) while the exporter still gets the correct tax-compliant confirmation (FIRA) on their end.
Regulated Partners Around the World
Skydo runs on global financial rails, partnering with banks you already know and trust.
For example, Banking Circle (a fully licensed next-generation bank with central bank access in Europe) has entered a strategic partnership with Skydo to expand payment options for UK/EU and Australian clients.
In Asia, Skydo uses accounts at DBS Bank (Singapore). For USD payments, Skydo issues accounts via Community Federal Savings Bank (a New York bank). For Canada, it uses Digital Commerce Bank (a regulated Canadian bank), and for Europe/UK, it taps banks like Barclays and other IBAN providers.
In India, Skydo partners with HDFC Bank (one of India’s largest private banks) to reconcile the rupees on the exporter’s side. It even leverages Currencycloud (a Visa company) for multi-currency accounts. In short, every virtual account is held at a major bank – you’re not sending money into thin air, but into real bank rails.
“We’re constantly in search of global rails that make payments faster, cheaper and more compliant,” says Skydo’s CEO Srivatsan Sridhar, about their Banking Circle tie-up. By “rails”, he means real bank accounts and networks. Thanks to these partnerships, US and European buyers pay in dollars or euros as normal. Skydo’s system handles the rest, offering local payment details for multiple currencies in just a few minutes
SOC 2 Security and Real-Time Compliance
Beyond the banks, Skydo invests heavily in security and compliance. The platform is ISO 27001 certified and AICPA SOC 2 compliant, meaning it meets top industry standards for data protection and system reliability. All payment data is encrypted in transit and at rest, with strict access controls. Skydo also requires two-factor authentication on logins and continuously monitors for any suspicious activity.
Skydo’s team (with AI-powered tools) actively flags anomalies in real time: every transaction is screened against AML/KYC rules, and any unusual pattern is immediately investigated. As Skydo notes, “if anything seems amiss, we immediately investigate to ensure your data’s integrity and our platform’s security” Put simply, paying via Skydo is as safe as any major bank transfer – probably safer, since their systems are built for secure global flows.
Skydo is also fully approved by regulators. It recently received in-principle authorisation from India’s Reserve Bank (RBI) to operate as a Payment Aggregator – Cross Border (PA-CB) entity. This is the same RBI framework that governs other licensed fintechs such as PayPal, Transferwise etc. to process cross-border flows in India; it means Skydo must follow strict rules on transaction security, compliance and audit. In short, RBI has vetted Skydo’s model. By now, Skydo serves over 20,000 Indian exporters and processes hundreds of millions of dollars annually, so your payments become part of a well-established system, not a back-alley workaround.
Putting It All Together
Key reasons to trust Skydo’s virtual accounts:
- Global Bank Backing: Every virtual account is held at a regulated bank. For example, US dollars go to Community Federal (NY), euros to Barclays (EU), SGD to DBS, CAD to Digital Commerce Bank, INR settlements via HDFC Bank, etc. Skydo’s partners include Banking Circle, DBS, Currencycloud (Visa) and others
- Regulated & Licensed: Skydo is RBI-authorised (PA-CB license) and works with banks under normal banking regulations, and even has a Payment Service Provider (PSP) nod from Amazon for handling export receipts.
- Certified Security: The platform is ISO 27001 and SOC 2 certified It uses top-grade encryption, strict access controls and 24/7 monitoring (including AI-driven AML/KYC checks) to protect every transaction.
- Fast, Transparent Payments: You pay in your currency (often local ACH/SWIFT speed) with a flat fee and real-time tracking. No hidden FX markups means buyers save on costs,. One happy user reported the “payout experience [was] excellent, easy and fast”
In short, paying into a Skydo virtual account is simply a modern, regulated way to move money internationally. It offers the same level of security as wiring to a major global bank, while being far more convenient for both you and the exporter. By using trusted global banks and following global compliance, Skydo makes cross-border invoicing as seamless as domestic payments. The next time an Indian partner asks you to pay via Skydo’s virtual account, you can be confident it’s secure, compliant, and in fact better than the old wire-transfer route.
