NEFT service won’t be available for 14 hours on May 23: RBI – Times of India

NEW DELHI: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday said that National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) service will not be available for 14 hours on May 23 due “technical upgrade”.
“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,” RBI stated in a notification.
However, the RTGS (real-time gross settlement) system will continue to be operational as usual during the above mentioned period, the central bank mentioned.
The RBI told member banks to inform their customers and plan their payment operations accordingly.
“NEFT members will continue to receive event update(s) through NEFT system broadcasts,” the notification added.
NEFT is a nationwide centralised payment system owned and operated by the RBI. The Reserve Bank made NEFT available on a 24×7 basis from December 16, 2019.
Last month, a similar technical upgrade was completed for RTGS.
RTGS is meant for large-value instantaneous fund transfers; while NEFT is a popular mode for small-value transactions.