Overview
Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) is a fund transfer system maintained by the RBI, which enables fund transfer from one bank to another, on a real-time and gross basis. The real-time settlement means transactions are settled as soon as they are processed. The transactions are settled on a one-to-one basis, which means the system will not club or bundle a transaction with another. This is one of the fastest possible ways to transfer money, between Banks in India. RTGS is a better option for high-value transactions, that need immediate clearing. The RTGS service window for customer transactions is available to banks from 7 AM to 6 PM on a working day, for settlement at the RBI end. However, the timings that the banks follow may vary depending on the customer timings of the bank branches. The RTGS Fund Transfer API accepts the Remitter’s Name, Account Number, Mobile Number, etc. and the Beneficiary’s Account Number, Mobile Number and IFSC of the Beneficiary Bank’s branch in the request payload message. If the RTGS request is received after the cut-off time, the system will try the NEFT channel. If the NEFT cut-off time has expired, the request will be parked and will be attempted during the next working day. Requests cannot be cancelled. This API will first respond with an Acknowledgement message immediately, which will contain the UTR, the unique transaction reference number provided by the Bank. When the transaction completes, the final transaction status message will be returned. This final message will have details of the fund transfer status, remitter’s and beneficiary’s account, the amount transferred, etc. Based on the status code, RESPONSE_CODE, and description, the client application can take appropriate actions. Both the response messages will have the same ReferenceID, with which the client had invoked this API.