New RTGS money timings from today: 5 things to know

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has extended the customer transactions timing for Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system by an hour. Now, you can transfer funds through the RTGS system from 7 am instead of 8 am from today (26 August).”In order to increase the availability of the RTGS system, it has been decided to extend the operating hours of RTGS and commence operations for customers and banks from 7:00 am,” RBI had said in a notification. The new RTGS timing window will come into effect from today, i.e. 26 August 2019.

New RTGS timing window

Open for Business-7 am

Customer transactions (Initial Cut-off)-6 pm

Inter-bank transactions (Final Cut-off)-7.45 pm

Intra-day liquidity (IDL) Reversal-7.45 pm to 8.00 pm

End of Day-8.00 pm

1) Effective today, RBI brought forward by an hour the time when the real time gross settlement (RTGS) system will become available.

2) Earlier, transfer of funds through the system was available for customer transactions from 8 am to 6 pm. Now, the transfer of funds can be done from 7 am to 6 pm.

3) The RTGS system is primarily meant for high-value transactions.

4) The minimum amount to be remitted through RTGS is ₹2 lakh with no maximum limit.

5) In this transfer, the beneficiary bank receives the instruction to transfer funds immediately when you carry out the transaction, and the transfer is instantaneous.

Earlier this month, the RBI had decided to allow round-the-clock fund transfers through the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) from December this year in order to promote digital transactions. Currently, the NEFT, a retail payment system, is available for customers from 8 am to 7 pm on all working days with the exception of second and fourth Saturdays of a month.

The NEFT system is used for fund transfers of up to ₹2 lakh.

The Narendra Modi-led government and the banking regulator have been trying to incentivise digital payments further, with a vision to make India a ‘less-cash’ society through a bunch of online payment options for individuals.