“In the interest of customer convenience, and to take advantage of the availability of RTGS on all days of the year, it is proposed to make available NACH on all days of the week throughout the year, effective August 1, 2021,” RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said while announcing the bi-monthly monetary policy review on June 4, 2021. NACH is currently available only on the days when banks are functional.
There are four categories of electronic clearing services in India namely Local ECS, Regional ECS, National ECS, and NACH. The former three categories of services are operated either by RBI or by the designated commercial banks based on the geographical location of branches, the last one NACH runs on all India platforms operated by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
NACH (an ISO20022-compliant clearing house) follows the synchronization of high-security standards and best practices for quick and reliable transactions.
The arrangements under the NACH system eliminate the local barriers and facilitate the same-day transaction coverage of all core-banking-enabled branches anywhere in India.
The NACH system supports financial inclusion through its Aadhar Payment Bridge (APB) variant, enabling the Government and Government agencies to implement Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) schemes like MNREGA, Social Security Pension, Old age pension, LPG subsidy, etc. Thus, the arrangement under ACH (Automated Clearing House) enables direct credit of subsidies and other benefits to the beneficiaries using Aadhar-linked accounts in banks.
NACH also facilitates the collection of payments about electricity, gas, telephone, water, periodic installments towards loans, investments in mutual funds, and insurance premiums.
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