NEFT service will not be available for 14 hours on May 23: Here's why

New Delhi, May 17: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday announced that the National electronic funds transfer (NEFT) service for fund transfers will not be available for 14 hours on May 23. The central bank said that the facility will be unavailable due to enhance the performance and resilience.

"A technical upgrade of NEFT, targeted to enhance the performance and resilience, is scheduled after the close of business of May 22, 2021. Accordingly, NEFT service will not be available from 00:01 hrs to 14:00 hrs on Sunday, May 23, 2021. The RTGS system will continue to be operational as usual during this period," the RBI tweeted today.

The Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) facility will continue to be operational as usual during this period, RBI said. A similar technical upgrade for RTGS was completed on April 18, the central bank mentioned.

The National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) is an electronic means of fund remittance and has today become the most popular means to send and receive money. In fact, it has now significantly replaced the cheque system for payments.

The NEFT is made available all the days of the week, including bank holidays and Sundays. This method of fund transfer is also very reliable.