National Electronic Fund Transfer

National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) is one of the most prominent electronic funds transfer systems of India. Started in Nov.-2005, NEFT is a facility provided to bank customers to enable them to transfer funds easily and securely on a one-to-one basis. It is done via electronic messages. This is not on real-time basis like RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement). This is a "net" transfer facility which is executed in hourly batches resulting in a time lag. NEFT facilities are available in 30,000 bank branches all over the country and work on a batch mode.

NEFT has gained popularity due to it saving on time and the ease with which the transactions can be concluded. This reflects from the fact that 42% of all electronic transactions in the 2008 financial year were NEFT transactions.

How this works

Detailed process NEFT is as follows

Step-1 : Customer fills an application form providing details of the beneficiary (like name, bank, branch name, IFSC, account type and account number) and the amount to be remitted. The remitter authorizes his/her bank branch to debit his account and remit the specified amount to the beneficiary. This facility is also available through online banking and some banks offer the NEFT facility even through the ATMs.