Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) Payments Are Now Available For 90 More Minutes
You can now request wire or electronic fund transfers through the RTGS or Real-Time Gross Settlement payments system for 90 additional minutes every day. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) - which maintains the RTGS payments network - last month announced its decision to extend the timings for customer transactions in RTGS. The new timings - from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm (instead of 4:30 pm previously) - came into effect from June 1. That means customers can now send money using the RTGS payments system - which is aimed at high-value transactions - till 6:00 pm.
Here are five things to know about RTGS or Real-Time Gross Settlement Payments:
1. What is RTGS and who can make RTGS fund transfers?
Fund transfers under RTGS - meant for transactions of Rs 2 lakh and above - are processed continuously throughout applicable business hours. RTGS differs from NEFT or National Electronic Funds Transfer and IMPS or Immediate Payment Service as the amounts below Rs 2 lakh can be transferred using IMPS and NEFT services.
(Also read: Timings for payments system RTGS extended)
2. New RTGS timings
The new timings applicable to RTGS transactions now enable customers to initiate fund transfers for a total 10 hours, as against seven and a half hours till May 31. This means that RTGS transactions are available at the customer end from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm on applicable days.
3. RTGS charges
The charges levied by commercial banks for their customers requesting RTGS transactions vary depending upon the time of request. RTGS member commercial banks charge a fee for every outward RTGS transaction (in addition to flat processing charge) by their customers.
4. RTGS working days
The RTGS service window for customer transactions is available to banks from 8 am to 6:00 pm on working days for settlement at the RBI-end. However, the timings that the banks follow may vary from one bank to another.
5. RTGS member banks
Public sector lender State Bank of India, and its private sector peers ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank, among several other financial institutions, are members of payments systems RTGS and National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT). There are more than 1.1 lakh RTGS-enabled bank branches, according to the RBI website.
As of May 21, State Bank of India - the country's largest lender - had 24,842 RTGS-enabled bank branches, according to the Reserve Bank of India.
Other RTGS member banks include Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank and Canara Bank. (Learn more about RTGS payments)
