The Reserve Bank of India in its Statement on Development and Regulatory Policies has said that the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) will be available round the clock from December 2020. The decision to extend hours of the service was taken to facilitate more convenience for online fund transfers.
The announcement comes after the RBI made the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system available round the clock throughout the year in December last.
In a statement the RBI said, “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.”
It further said that 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.
While making the announcement noted that India will be among very few countries globally with ’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 Shaktikanta Das said as he addressed the media after Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) bi-monthly meeting.
RTGS facility is mostly used for high-value transactions.