State Bank of India Waives off Charges on RTGS, NEFT and IMPS Transactions

The country's largest lending bank - State Bank of India (SBI) announced the waiver of charges on NEFT, RTGS transactions. The move comes in after the Reserve Bank of India announced the waiver of charges levied on NEFT, RTGS transactions during its previous monetary policy meet.

The press release of SBI, states that with effect from July 1, 2019, there will be no RTGS, NEFT charges levied on the customers for transactions which are done via YONO app, internet banking and mobile banking and the IMPS charges will also be waived off with effect from August 1, 2019.

The bank's Retail and Digital Banking, Managing Director - P. K. Gupta stated that "One of our bank's core strategies is to provide convenience to customers and encourage them to take the digital route for transferring funds. In sync with our strategy and Government of India's vision to create a digital economy, SBI has taken this step to promote use of YONO, internet banking and mobile banking for doing NEFT and RTGS transactions without incurring any cost".

As per the press release, the SBI has trimmed down the NEFT and RTGS charges by 20 per cent for those customers who are transacting via a bank branch. As for IMPS transactions are concerned, there will be no charge for transfer of funds of up to Rs 1,000 done via a bank branch.

During the previous monetary policy meet which was held in June, the Central Bank stated that "The Reserve Bank levies minimum charges on banks for transactions routed through its Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS) meant for large-value instantaneous fund transfers and the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) System for other fund transfers. Banks, in turn, levy charges on their customers. In order to provide an impetus to digital funds movement, it has been decided to do away with the charges levied by the Reserve Bank for transactions processed in the RTGS and NEFT systems. Banks will be required, in turn, to pass these benefits to their customers. Instructions to banks in this regard will be issued within a week".