To popularise electronic transfer of funds, the
Reserve Bank on Monday allowed regional rural banks (RRBs) and
cooperative banks to participate in the centralised payment systems.
With this, all the banks can now transfer funds electronically through real time gross settlement system (RTGS) and national electronic funds transfer (NEFT).
At present, the centralised payment systems -
RTGS and NEFT - can be accessed only by members that included public and private sector banks. As an exception, RRBs have been given access to the NEFT system through their sponsor banks.
"On a review, it has been decided to expand the sub-membership route to enable all licensed banks to participate in NEFT and RTGS systems," RBI said in a notification.
NEFT, an electronic transfer of funds system meant for retail customers while RTGS system facilitates high-value transfer of money with threshold limit of Rs 2 lakh.
This would be an alternate mechanism to all licensed banks which have the technological capabilities but are not participating in centralised payment systems on account of either not meeting the access criteria or because of cost considerations, it said.
Special 
