The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) today increased the daily limit of IMPS transactions to ₹5 lakh from earlier ₹2 lakh earlier for the ease of consumers.

As informed by  RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, the Immediate Payment Service or IMPS transfer limit will be now increased considering the importance of IMPS in the COVID-19 pandemic. It will further enable instant domestic fund transfer and enhance consumer convenience, he added. 

Introduced in 2010, IMPS or Immediate Payment Service is a 24X7 service that is one of the most-used banking facilities to transfer money in real-time. It usually takes a few hours to transfer money to the beneficiary account via National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT). The transfer takes place in half-hourly batches. Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) is a real-time settlement of fund transfers, however, it is not instant. In IMPS, beneficiary accounts usually receive the funds in real-time as soon as funds are transferred by the remitting bank.

It usually takes a few hours in NEFT transfer for the amount to be credited to the intended beneficiary. Even with RTGS, the transfer is often not instant. Under normal circumstances, the beneficiary branches are expected to receive the funds in real-time as soon as funds are transferred by the remitting bank. The beneficiary bank must credit the beneficiary’s account within 30 minutes of receiving the fund’s transfer message.

Banks levy the charge for customers using IMPS transactions. However, certain banks offer IMPS free of cost depending on the type of account held by the customers or using IMPS via Internet banking.

As stated by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), IMPS is a big step towards building a seamless mobile banking service in India. It is also one of the earliest initiatives taken by the Central government enabling bank customers to use their mobile phones as a channel for accessing bank accounts and transactions.