RTGS Holidays 2011. NEFT Holidays 2011

Reserve Bank of India, has announced the RTGS Holidays for 2011.


Excluding Sundays, RTGS/NEFT will be closed for 11 days in 2011. 


October 2nd, and December 25th fall on a Sunday, so do not be surprised not to see them in the Holiday list.


By now Bank customers must be aware that on RTGS Holidays, NEFT too will be closed.

Number of Digits in a Bank Account

Number of Digits in a Bank Account

The key to a successful ePayment i.e RTGS/NEFT/ECS/Direct Credit is the beneficiary’s correct account number. Hence, it is of utmost for the sender to satisfy himself/herself, about the correctness of the beneficiary’s account before initiating a ePayment.

Fortunately, in all Internet Banking Modules, the Beneficiary details have tobe entered only once, and stored for future utilization.

The best technique to conform the beneficary’s account number is a copy of the Cheque leaf of the beneficiary’s bank account.

The number of digits in a Bank Account varies from Bank to Bank. However, in a Core Banking Scenario (CBS), the Bank account numbering style is common across the Bank.

Please find enclosed Details of Length of Account Numbers in Digits of few Banks.  

This will help the Senders to have a quick check as to whether the receiver is providing the correct Bank account number or not.

Of course, the standard Disclaimer applies to this Post too.

5 significant features of Cheque Truncation System - Chennai

5 significant features of Cheque Truncation System - Chennai

RBI  in its Second Quarter Review of Monetary Policy 2010-11 released on 2^nd November, 2001, indicated that the next phase of Cheque Truncation System, will be rolled out by March 2011 in Chennai.

The Chennai CTS will be Grid Based covering the clearing houses in the other cities of Tamil Nadu and the adjoining states of Kerala and Karnataka. Not sure, why Andhra Pradesh has been left out.

In this connection, NPCI has released the FAQ’s.

The FAQ’s can be accessed at http://www.npci.org.in/documents/CTS-Chennai.pdf

The highlights are: -

01)It will be grid based

02)RBI will manage the Chennai Banker’s Clearing House (CBCH)

03)NPCI will act as a Cheque Processing Centre (CPC). NPCI  will process electronic cheques and images received from member banks.

04)There can be four types of participants in CBCH viz: -

i. Member banks of the CBCH

ii. Sub Member banks who will participate through members

iii. Indirect members who can participate for submission of data and images through a Member bank but will maintain a separate settlement account.

iv. Banks not present in CBCH but having presence in other cities when Grid is introduced (to be finalized in consultation with RBI). They can participate through sub membership or indirect membership route.

5. There will be common disaster recovery (DR) arrangements for both New Delhi and Chennai CTS operations.

Interbank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS) launched on 22/11/2010.

Interbank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS) launched on 22/11/2010.

NPCI on 22^nd November, 2010 announced the launch of IMPS.

The Press Release can be accessed @ http://www.npci.org.in/documents/press%20release%2022Nov10.pdf

The major players to bring forth this Product live are NPCI along with its partners, participating banks, their service providers, MPFI and IDRBT.

Banks to be part of the IMPS have to be first members of the NFS (National Financial Switch) of NPCI. This is because IMPS rides on the existing NFS Interbank ATM switching infrastructure.

Currently, 51 Banks are part of NFS.  This means right away these 51 Banks can be part of the IMPS Grid.

Only minimal changes are required in the Bank’s Mobile Banking Solution, to integrate with IMPS.

Some excerpts from leading newspapers on this momentous occasion


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 Currently seven banks, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank Ltd, Union Bank of India, Bank of India, HDFC Bank Ltd, Axis Bank Ltd and Yes Bank Ltd are already live with the service while Coporation Bank, Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank and Canara Bank are among seven other Banks which are in the pipeline.

(http://www.livemint.com/2010/11/22232714/NPCI-launches-mobile-payment-s.html )

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The NPCI has asked banks not to levy any charges to the customers till March 2011 for the service. The NPCI too is not charging banks for offering the IMPS facility to people.

After March 2011, the NPCI will charge banks 25 paise per transaction. At present, customers will only have to pay the nominal charge levied by the telecom service provider for using GPRS to facilitate the transaction.

http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report_you-can-pay-your-vegetable-vendor-rickshaw-driver-via-mobile-phone_1470648

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As the IMPS momentum gains speed in the coming months, there will be a surge in the volumes and also the variety. We Indians will no doubt find new ways to popularize IMPS.

IMPS has the potential to reduce ‘cash handling’, in our economy.

Cheers to all the participants involved in this innovative payment solution.

NPCI for taking the lead.

MFPI for developing the Standards.

The pioneer Banks i.e. SBI, ICICI, Bank of India and Union Bank of India, for testing the product.

IDBRT for testing the Standards.

The technology is in place, the Product is in place, and now it is upto us, to scale up the volumes.

IMPS – Volumes

IMPS – Volumes

As all of you are aware, IMPS is in testing phase now, and is expected to go live, by this month end.

NPCI has published the IMPS Volumes for the last few months @ http://www.npci.org.in/impsVolumes.aspx

As the testing phase is only amongst a closed user group, the last 3 month’s volumes do not show the true potential of IMPS.

The true potential of IMPS will be known, only once it is launched commercially.