The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced on Monday that the Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) service will not be available for 14 hours on April 18 (Sunday) due to a technical upgrade. The central bank also noted that the National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) services will continue to remain operational during this period. “A technical upgrade of RTGS, targeted to enhance the resilience and to further improve the Disaster Recovery Time of the RTGS system, is scheduled after the close of business of April 17, 2021. Accordingly, RTGS service will not be available from 00:00 hrs to 14.00 hrs on Sunday, April 18, 2021. The NEFT system will continue to be operational as usual during this period,” a statement from RBI said. RBI also asked the member banks to notify the customers, asking them to plan their transactions accordingly.
“Member banks may inform their customers to plan their payment operations accordingly. RTGS Members will continue to receive event update(s) through system broadcasts,” it said in the statement. On April 7, the central bank allowed for the direct membership of non-bank payment system operators in the Centralised Payment Systems (CPS). Until then, RTGS and NEFT were allowed only for banks and specialised entities like clearing corporations and select development financial institutions. However, after the announcement, non-bank entities like Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) issuers, Card Networks, White Label ATM (WLA) operators, Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS) platforms would also be enabled to take direct membership in CPS. The move is intended to “encourage the participation of non-banks across payment systems,” a statement from RBI announcing the decision said. “This facility is expected to minimise settlement risk in the financial system and enhance the reach of digital financial services to all user segments. These entities will, however, not be eligible for any liquidity facility from the Reserve Bank to facilitate settlement of their transactions in these CPSs. Necessary instructions will be issued separately,” t statement also noted.