24x7 NEFT fund transfer from December 2019, RBI makes big announcement

NEFT fund transfer will now be available 24x7. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced the extension of the collateralised liquidity support on the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) payment system to round the clock. The NEFT facility is currently available till 7:45 pm on working days.

"In order to facilitate smooth settlement of these transactions in the accounts of the banks maintained with RBI, it has been decided that the Reserve Bank will extend the collateralised liquidity support, which is currently available till 7.45 pm on NEFT working days, round the clock," RBI said.

In its August Monetary Police Review meet, RBI announced round-the-clock availability of NEFT payment system from December 2019. The NEFT payment system as a retail payment system is available for customers from 8.00 am to 7.00 pm on all working days of the week, except second and fourth Saturdays of the month.

The Reserve Bank on Friday cut its benchmark lending rate by 0.25 per cent to revive growth that has hit six-year low of 5 per cent, and affirmed commitment to remain accommodative to address growth concerns 'as long as necessary'.

With this cut, repo rate, at which it lends to the system, will now come down to 5.15 per cent and push consumption during the ongoing festival season.

This will help reduce borrowing costs for home and auto loans, which are now directly linked to this benchmark.

This is the fifth straight cut in rates by the Reserve Bank of India in as much policy reviews in 2019, and takes the total quantum of reductions to 1.35 per cent.

In the fourth bi-monthly review of the policy, the RBI sharply reduced its GDP growth estimate to 6.1 per cent for FY20 as against 6.9 per cent it was expecting earlier.

National Electronic Funds Transfer is a RBI controlled platform which facilitates interoperable payment for fund transfr by a customer between different accounts.

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