In what is being seen as a digital push for the banking landscape in India, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently announced that the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT), its retail payment system, has become a 24x7 facility that will be available round the year, including bank holidays. This followed another major change RBI announced after its July monetary policy review—that processing charges levied for NEFT and RTGS (real-time gross settlement) transactions will not apply starting January 2020. Nilanjana Chakraborty asks experts what RBI’s moves mean for the future of digital payments in India
Transfer of large sums through RTGS will be easier
—Adhil Shetty, chief executive officer, BankBazaar
There has been a strong push in favour of digital transactions, and the costs associated with digital payments have been seeing a steady downswing in the last few years. This waiver by RBI completely takes away the costs associated with fund transfer via NEFT and RTGS for customers and brings them on a par with other alternatives such as UPI (Unified Payments Interface).