What are the Differences Between NEFT, RTGS, and IMPS?

NEFT, RTGS, and IMPS are three of the oldest and most common payment methods to transfer funds of large amounts in India. While the first two are maintained by the Reserve Bank of India and used for transferring funds from one bank to another, the third i.e. IMPS is a mobile-based payment service which is facilitated by NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India).

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The following are the main differences between NEFT, RTGS, and IMPS:

Basics

NEFT stands for National Electronic Fund Transfer, RTGS for Real Time Gross Settlement, and IMPS for Immediate Payment Services.

Requirements

• For NEFT and RTGS transfers the bank accounts of the sender and beneficiary both should be on the NEFT network. To transfer the funds, the sender must have the following information- account no. of the beneficiary, their name, IFSC of the branch, and thename of the bank.
• For IMPS transfers both the sender and beneficiary must be registered on the IMPS network. Instead of a bank account, the sender uses a combination of MMID (a 7-digit number of which first 4 digits are provided by NPCI and the remaining 3 by the member mobile network) and the mobile number.

Transfer Limits

The minimum and maximum limits of NEFT, RTGS, and IMPS (in the same order) are as follows: Rs. 1 and Rs. 10 lakhs, Rs. 2 lakhs and Rs. 10 lakhs, Rs. and Rs. 2 lakhs/ Rs. 10,000.