RTGS Fund Transfer to be possible round the clock from December 2020: RBI Governor

New Delhi: The real-time gross settlement (RTGS) fund transfer system will be available round-the-clock from December this year, The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das announced today. The RTGS money transfer facility, which has a minimum limit of Rs 2 lakh, at present only functions during the working hours of banks.

RBI statement reads: In December 2019, the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system was made available on a 24x7x365 basis and the system has been operating smoothly since then. The large-value RTGS system is currently available for customers from 7.00 am to 6.00 pm on all working days of a week (except 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month). To support the ongoing efforts aimed at global integration of Indian financial markets, facilitate India’s efforts to develop international financial centers and to provide wider payment flexibility to domestic corporates and institutions, it has been decided to make available the RTGS system round the clock on all days. With this, India will be one of the very few countries globally with a 24x7x365 large value real time payment system. This facility will be made effective from December 2020.

“In December 2019, the RBI made available the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system on a 24x7x365 basis and the system has been operating smoothly since then. In order to facilitate swift and seamless payments in real time for domestic businesses and institutions, it has been decided to make available the RTGS system round the clock on all days from December 2020. India will be among very few countries globally with a 24x7x365 large value real time payment system. This will facilitate innovations in the large value payments ecosystem and promote ease of doing business,” RBI Governor told the reporters.

RTGS is one of the two inter bank transfer systems maintained by the RBI that use electronic transfer method to send money from the remitter’s account in one bank to the beneficiary account in another bank. The other electronic fund transfer system is National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT). The RTGS is believed to be the more convenient mode of transfer as the beneficiary bank branch receive the fund in real time as soon as it is transferred by the remitting bank. The bank then has to credit the amount to the beneficiary’s account within two hours.Another real time payment system is Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) which is available even on bank holidays and has an upper limit of Rs 2 lakh on transactions.