According to data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the number of national electronic funds transfer (NEFT) transactions in the total received inward credits category has risen by 75% to 39,20,380 in April 2009 from 22,31,615 in July 2008. At the same time, the amount has risen 73% to Rs 21,834 crore, during the same period.
On Monday, D Subbarao, governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) pointed out that there has been a massive jump in the clearing of the number of transactions on the NEFT System, on monthly basis, by the RBI.
?In 2005, RBI was clearing about 2.70 lakh NEFT transactions a month. This number has jumped exponentially to nearly 40 lakh a month today,? he said.
Customers too applauded the NEFT system, introduced by the RBI, saying it is secure, convenient and a faster method for making payments, anywhere in the country. However, there are specific private sector banks which take a longer time to process the payment, they said.
Total inward and outward RTGS volume of transactions has more than doubled from 8, 68,412 in July 2008 to 18, 13,195 in April 2009, depicting a rise of 108%. Besides, the amount has risen from Rs 26, 88,214 crore to Rs 28, 21,100 crore, during the same period.
Subbarao pointed out that there has been a rapid acceptance of the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) System, throughout the country. ?The facility for inter-bank funds settlement through RTGS is today available across more than 55,000 bank branches, in more than 2,500 regional centres across the country ? a coverage span perhaps not seen anywhere else in the world. In 2004, there were only 4,800 branches which offered RTGS system,? said Subbarao.
He also noted that there has been a rapid acceptance of RTGS system by users, in terms of daily transaction volume. ?Today, we settle close to 1,00,000 transactions a day in the RTGS mode, up from just about 6000 transactions a day in 2004-05,? he said.
The governor also highlighted the extent of customer migration to electronic payments in India.
According to him, from less than half a percent of transactions in the electronic mode in 2001, today we process close to about 30 crore transactions per year in the electronic mode.
?The same holds true for RBI?s recent initiative away from high value clearing to electronic modes ? a move aimed at creating a safer, secure and credit-push based funds transfer route that has gained considerable traction,? he added.
There have also been developments in the communication network and messaging system in India, noted Subbarao.