Round the Clock RTGS Facility

• 10 Oct 2020

Why in News

The Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS), used for large value transactions, will be made available round-the-clock from December 2020.

Key Points

• RTGS:
  
  • It enables real-time transfer of funds to a beneficiary’s account and is primarily meant for large-value transactions.
  • Real time means the processing of instructions at the time they are received and gross settlement implies that settlement of funds transfer instructions occurs individually.
• Current Scenario: RTGS is available for customers from 7.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. on all working days of a week, except second and fourth Saturdays of every month.
• 24x7x365 RTGS Decision: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to make available the RTGS system round the clock on all days from December 2020 in order to facilitate swift and seamless payments in real-time for domestic businesses and institutions.
  
  • In December 2019, the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system was made available on a 24x7x365 basis.
  • From July 2019, RBI stopped levying charges on transactions through NEFT and RTGS, with an aim to promote digital transactions in the country.
• Significance:
  
  • This will facilitate innovations in the large value payments ecosystem and promote ease of doing business.
  • This will help in global integration of Indian financial markets and will facilitate India’s efforts to develop international financial centres.
  • With this, India will be one of the very few countries globally with a 24x7x365 large value real time payment system.
• RTGS vs NEFT:
  
  • Use: RTGS is meant for large-value instantaneous fund transfers while NEFT is generally used for fund transfers of up to Rs. 2 lakh.
    
    • The minimum amount to be remitted through RTGS is Rs. 2,00,000 with no upper or maximum ceiling.
    • There is no limit imposed by RBI for funds transfer through NEFT system. However, banks may place amount limits based on their own risk perception with the approval of its board.
  • Mechanism:
    
    • NEFT is an electronic fund transfer system in which the transactions received up to a particular time are processed in batches.
    • Contrary to this, in RTGS, the transactions are processed continuously on a transaction by transaction basis throughout the RTGS business hours.

Source: TH