The National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) systems will be available on a 24x7 basis from December 16, 2019, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on December 6.
The first settlement will take place after 00:30 hours on December 16, 2019 (i.e. night of December 15, 2019).
"Member banks are expected to keep adequate liquidity in their current account with Reserve Bank of India at all times to facilitate the successful posting of NEFT batch settlements," the central bank said.
Banks have also been asked to inform and ensure seamless NEFT 24x7 facility to their customers.
Under the new framework, there will be 48 half-hourly batches every day. The settlement of the first batch will commence after 00:30 hours and the last batch will end at 00:00 hours.
At present, the NEFT payment system is available to customers from 8 am to 7 pm on all working days of the week (except 2nd and 4th Saturdays, and all Sundays of the month).
From December 16, NEFT system will be available on all days of the year, including holidays.
After the banking hours, NEFT transactions will be automated using ‘Straight Through Processing (STP)’ modes by the banks.
RBI said the existing discipline for crediting beneficiary’s account or returning the transaction (within 2 hours of settlement of the respective batch) to the originating bank will continue.
Also, banks will be required to send a positive confirmation message (N10) for all NEFT credits.
RBI had decided to make NEFT available on 24x7 basis as part of its Payment System Vision 2021 released earlier this year.
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