The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday announced that the Real Time Gross Settlement system (RTGS) used for large value transactions will be available round the clock on all days of the year from December 14, 2020.

“RTGS 24x7x365 will be launched with effect from 00:30 hours on December 14, 2020. India will become one of the few countries in the world to operate its RTGS system round the clock throughout the year,” RBI said in a statement today.

The RTGS facility is used to make large money transfers from one bank account to another. As per the RBI's FAQs, the minimum amount that can be remitted through RTGS is Rs 2 lakh with no upper or maximum ceiling. However, banks usually have an upper ceiling of Rs 10 lakh.
Currently RTGS is available for customers from 7.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. on all working days of a week, except second and fourth Saturday of every month.

RTGS, which began its operations on March 26, 2004 with a soft launch involving four banks, presently handles 6.35 lakh transactions daily for a value of ₹4.17 lakh crore across 237 participant banks. The average ticket size for RTGS in November 2020 was ₹57.96 lakh making it a truly large value payment system. RTGS uses ISO 20022 format which is the best-in-class messaging standard for financial transactions. The feature of positive confirmation for credit to beneficiary accounts is also available in RTGS.

“The RTGS system will soon be made 24x7. 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. This will make the payments ecosystem more efficient.” RBI Governer Shaktikanta Das had said on December 4 while announcing the monetary policy.

The RBI in its December 4 notification had advised, that RTGS shall be available for customer and inter-bank transactions round the clock, except for the interval between 'end-of-day' and 'start-of-day' processes, whose timings would be duly broadcasted through the RTGS system. It also said that RTGS shall continue to be governed by the RTGS System. Regulations, 2013, as amended from time to time. Also Intra-Day Liquidity (IDL) facility shall be made available to facilitate smooth operations. The Intra-Day Liquidity (IDL) availed, if any, shall be reversed before the 'end-of-day' process begins.

Notification on December 4 also advised members to put in place necessary infrastructure to provide RTGS round the clock to their customers. RTGS transactions undertaken after normal banking hours are expected to be automated using 'Straight Through Processing (STP)' modes. Moreover, members are further advised to disseminate information on the extended availability of RTGS to all their customers.
The RBI had made the NEFT facility available 24X7 from December 16, 2019.

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