Starting August 1, you will be able to get your salaries and pensions credited over the weekend, too, with the National Automated Clearing House (NACH) becoming available on all days of the week.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das announced the move on Friday. “In order to further enhance customer convenience, and to leverage the 24x7 availability of RTGS, NACH which is currently available on bank working days, is proposed to be made available on all days of the week effective from August 1, 2021,” he said.

NACH is a bulk payment system operated by the NPCI and facilitates one-to-many credit transfers. Over 40.6 crore transactions (credits and debits) were presented on the NACH platform in May.

Digital drive

Amidst the rising adoption of digital payments, the move is set to benefit customers. Apart from getting salaries and pensions over weekends, customers will also be able to make payments such as EMIs and SIPs over the weekend.

Das noted that NACH has emerged a prominent mode of direct benefit transfer (DBT) to a large number of beneficiaries and has helped transfer of government subsidies on time.

At present, it is available on days banks work and auto debit transactions are not processed on holidays.

Vishwas Patel, Chairman, Payments Council of India, said it will speed up payments. “As IMPS, NEFT and RTGS are moving into real-time payments, NACH being available on all days will help employees get salaries on time, faster and even on weekends,” he said.

Jithesh PV, Vice-President and Head, Digital Banking, Federal Bank, said: “More partners such as NBFCs and products like bill payments may move to NACH as it is now available on all days making it a more convenient platform.”

“Availability of NACH on all days will further the financial inclusion objectives through DBT,” said SS Mallikarjuna Rao, MD and CEO, Punjab National Bank.

Also read: Non-banking finance cos seek easier rules for cancelling NACH mandates

 

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