RBI Says NEFT Money Transfer to be Active 24x7 From 16 December

The facility will be made available using an automatic process called STP that will work through the day and night.

From 16 December onwards, bank account users in India will be able to make online money transfers via NEFT any time of the day or night. This will make the facility available 24x7, which has till now relied on manual assistance to clear fund transfers between two parties.

This confirmation was given by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 6 December through this notification, and informed that all the banks in the country need to ensure “availability of all necessary infrastructural requirements at their end for providing seamless NEFT 24x7 facility to their customers.”

The first set of transactions will be processed starting from 00:30 hours on 16 December (night of 15 December). This system will be available on all days of the year, including holidays.

The traditional online banking via NEFT has relied on manual interference, checking funds and confirming the details via phone, fax or email.

But the latest change in online banking process will be deployed with the use of Straight Through Processing (STP) mode by the banks. According to the information available, STP ensures the entire payment process, from initiation to settlement, to be free of human intervention.

This, according to banking experts, will reduce the number of transaction errors, allowing the banking staff to focus on core services, and offering them to customers effectively.

The RBI notification also requires the banks to do the following with its upcoming service:

1. Member banks will ensure the sending of a positive confirmation message (N10) for all NEFT credits.
2. All provisions of NEFT procedural guidelines will be applicable for NEFT 24x7 transactions as well.
3. 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.
4. Banks may disseminate information on the extended timings for NEFT to all their customers.

Even though all these details have been shared with the banks, it remains to be seen if they can adhere to the stipulated deadline from RBI and offer 24X7 service to customers from next week onwards.