RBI asks banks to make RTGS transactions more customer friendly : Banknet India

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RTGS transactions to become more bank customer friendly

April 8, 2009: The RTGS system implemented by the Reserve Bank has been in operation for more than four years. The system has also stabilised over the years and has been witnessing increased coverage in terms of bank branches and transaction volume.The volume of RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement System ) transactions is increasing rapidly. RTGS settled 1.94 million transactions in the month of March 2009 as against 0.72 million transactions in March 2008. Customer transactions settling in RTGS presently constitute 89 percent of total RTGS transactions and are growing.

At a recent meeting with major banks, Reserve Bank of India reviewed the entire gamut of RTGS customer transactions with a view to making them more user friendly. Based on these discussions, the following decisions have been taken for implementation by RTGS member banks latest by June 01, 2009.

1. It is treiterated that in a Straight Through Processing (STP) environment, standardization is very much necessary and uniformity in message format is a pre requisite for the success of STP.

2. RTGS Customers have been complaining that there is no uniformity on information provided to the customer in the pass books / account statements by different banks. Some banks merely indicate `RTGS credit’ without details while other banks are giving sender's bank account number or UTR number of the transactions etc. Customer is receiving multiple RTGS credits on a given date, is at a loss to understand the source of funds leading to reconciliation issues.

RBI has therefore, advised that

a) A bank customer receiving RTGS credit shall be provided with the name of the remitter in his account statements / pass book.

b) A bank customer sending a RTGS remittance shall be provided with the name of the beneficiary in his account statements / pass book.

The banks are free to provide any additional information as they deem necessary / useful.

What is Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS)...Learn more