NEFT Will Remain Unavailable For 14 Hours On 23rd May, Here Is Why

Highlights:

• NEFT, National Electronic Funds Transfer, service will not be available on the 23^rd of May
• The RBI said that NEFT will remain unavailable for 14 hours
• On Sunday, the service will stop from 00:01 AM until 2:00 PM

One of the most used banking service, NEFT, which stands for National Electronic Funds Transfer, will remain unavailable on the 23^rd of May for 14 hours, said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The RBI, on Monday, tweeted, “A technical upgrade of NEFT, targeted to enhance the performance and resilience, is scheduled after the close of business of May 22, 2021. Accordingly, NEFT service will not be available from 00:01 hrs to 14:00 hrs on Sunday, May 23, 2021. The RTGS system will continue to be operational as usual during this period”.

NEFT System Upgrade – Downtime from 00.01 Hrs to 14.00 Hrs. on Sunday, May 23, 2021https://t.co/i3ioh6r7AY

— ReserveBankOfIndia (@RBI) May 17, 2021

The apex bank said that all the member banks shall inform their customers to plan their payment operations accordingly.

On the 18^th of April this year, similar technical upgrades were made for RTGS, which stands for Real Time Gross Settlement.

NEFT is available to a bank’s customer around the clock i.e. 24X7, however, what differentiates it from other modes of transfers is that it happens in batches of half an hour. There is no maximum limit on the amount one can transfer using NEFT, however, there are some banks that have put limits on their self discretion on the amount that can be transferred.

Also Read: Government Panel Recommends Extending The Gap Between Two Covishield Doses To 12-16 Weeks

If a customer wishes to transfer money via NEFT, he/she needs to mention the details of the beneficiary such as:

1. The IFSC code
2. The name of the beneficiary
3. The name of the Bank
4. The bank account number of the beneficiary

This information is a must while transferring money via NEFT.

Just last month, the Reserve Bank of India proposed to expand both RTGS and NEFT facilities to the non-bank payment system companies, in a phased manner.

The reason behind this move is to encourage the participation of the non-banks across various payment systems and ease to the general public.