Banking Awareness: A summary on NEFT, RTGS & IMPS

National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT)

• Meaning – It is way in which you can transfer fund from any bank account to any other bank account holder in India. NEFT is based on batch processing system.

• Minimum amount – Rs. 1

• Maximum amount – There is no upper ceiling for transferring money through NEFT, but generally RTGS is used for transfer of Rs 2,00,000 or above

• Time limit – The transactions are processed in hourly batches. There are twelve settlements from 8 A.M. to 7 P.M. on the weekdays (Monday – Friday) and six settlements from 8 A.M. to 1 P.M. on Saturday. The maximum time consumed is 2 hours from the submitting of the transaction in a batch.

• Availability – NEFT is not available on the bank holidays, RBI holiday and Sunday.

Note - For transferring funds to Nepal, the limit is of Rs. 50, 000.

Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS)

• Meaning – It is way in which you can transfer fund from any bank account to any other bank account holder in India in real time.

• Minimum amount – Rs 2,00,000

• Maximum amount – No limit

• Time limit – The transactions are processed on order basis i.e. Real time. The RTGS service is available from 8 A.M to 8 P.M. on the weekdays (Monday – Friday) and from 8 A.M. to 3:30 P.M. on Saturday. The transfer is instant but the bank is allowed to take up to 2 hours for crediting the amount to the depositor account.

• Availability – RTGS is not available on the bank holidays, RBI holiday and Sunday.

Inter Mobile Payment Service (IMPS)

• Meaning – It is way in which you can transfer fund from any bank account to any other bank account holder in India anytime.

• Minimum amount – Rs 1

• Maximum amount – Banks are allowed to set their own limit for IMPS.

• Time limit – It is real time. The depositor account is credited in less than 1 minute from the submission of transaction.

• Availability – IMPS can be done 24X7 even on bank holidays, RBI holiday and Sunday