RTGS To Be Available 24x7 Soon: RBI Governor

On Friday, the Reserve Bank of India's Governor said that the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system will be made available round-the-clock in the next few days. The functionality is going to benefit businesses as RTGS is used for large value transactions.

In December 2019, the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system was made available on a 24x7 basis.

Currently, RTGS is available for customers from 7 am to 6 pm on all working days of a week, except the second and fourth Saturdays of every month.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said RTGS system will soon be made available 24x7 in the next few days... "with this enablement, it is proposed to reduce settlement and default risk in the system by facilitating settlement of AePS, IMPS, NETC, NFS, RuPay, UPI transactions on all days of the week instead of five days earlier."

This will make the payment ecosystem more efficient, he added.

In order to expand adoption of digital payment in a safe and secure manner, he said, it has been decided to enhance the limits for contactless card transactions and e-mandates for recurring transactions through cards and UPI from Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 from January 1, 2021.

This will depend on the mandate and discretion of customers, he said.

RBI stopped levying charges on transactions through NEFT and RTGS from July 2019, with an aim to promote digital transactions in the country.