GLOBAL PAYMENTS KNOWLEDGEISO 20022 / SWIFT / SEPA / MT / MX
FOLLOW THE PAYMENT

India NEFT

A rupee transfer from one customer to another over the Reserve Bank of India's NEFT system, which settles net in half-hourly batches rather than one payment at a time.

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STEP 1 / 7MESSAGE

Riya instructs Bank Alfa to pay Arjun

Riya (remitter) → Bank Alfa (remitting bank)

Riya tells her bank to send INR 15,000.00 to Arjun by NEFT, giving his account number and the beneficiary bank's IFSC so the payment can be routed nationwide.

Step 1 of 7: Riya instructs Bank Alfa to pay Arjun

  1. 01Message
    Riya instructs Bank Alfa to pay ArjunRiya (remitter) → Bank Alfa (remitting bank)
  2. 02Posting
    Bank Alfa debits Riya and queues the transfer for the next batchBank Alfa (remitting bank)
  3. 03Message
    Bank Alfa submits the transfer into the current NEFT batchBank Alfa (remitting bank) → NEFT (Reserve Bank of India)
  4. 04Clearing obligation
    NEFT nets each bank's position for the batchNEFT (Reserve Bank of India)
  5. 05Settlement
    Net positions settle in central bank moneyBank Alfa (remitting bank) → Nordbank (beneficiary bank)
  6. 06Message
    NEFT delivers the transfer to NordbankNEFT (Reserve Bank of India) → Nordbank (beneficiary bank)
  7. 07Posting
    Nordbank credits ArjunNordbank (beneficiary bank)
MESSAGECLEARING OBLIGATIONSETTLEMENTPOSTING
Full step-by-step text (works without JavaScript)
  1. 01Message
    Riya instructs Bank Alfa to pay ArjunRiya (remitter) → Bank Alfa (remitting bank)

    Riya tells her bank to send INR 15,000.00 to Arjun by NEFT, giving his account number and the beneficiary bank's IFSC so the payment can be routed nationwide.

  2. 02Posting
    Bank Alfa debits Riya and queues the transfer for the next batchBank Alfa (remitting bank)

    Bank Alfa books the debit on Riya's account and holds the transfer for the next half-hourly cycle. The money has left Riya, but nothing has moved between banks yet.

    • DR Riya's savings account at Bank AlfaINR 15,000.00
  3. 03Message
    Bank Alfa submits the transfer into the current NEFT batchBank Alfa (remitting bank) → NEFT (Reserve Bank of India)

    Bank Alfa forwards the queued transfer to the NEFT system so it joins the batch of payments being collected for the current half-hourly settlement cycle.

  4. 04Clearing obligation
    NEFT nets each bank's position for the batchNEFT (Reserve Bank of India)

    The NEFT system pools every transfer in this half-hourly batch and works out one net figure per bank — who owes whom overall — instead of moving each payment on its own.

    These net positions are obligations calculated for the batch. The banks do not have their money yet — that only happens at settlement.

  5. 05Settlement
    Net positions settle in central bank moneyBank Alfa (remitting bank) → Nordbank (beneficiary bank)

    The batch's net positions settle across the banks' accounts at the Reserve Bank of India. Only now has money actually moved from Bank Alfa toward Nordbank, in central bank money.

    • DR Bank Alfa settlement account at RBIINR 15,000.00
    • CR Nordbank settlement account at RBIINR 15,000.00
  6. 06Message
    NEFT delivers the transfer to NordbankNEFT (Reserve Bank of India) → Nordbank (beneficiary bank)

    The NEFT system passes the transfer details on to Nordbank so it knows which account to credit and for how much once the batch has settled.

  7. 07Posting
    Nordbank credits ArjunNordbank (beneficiary bank)

    Nordbank books the credit to Arjun's account. The transfer is complete end to end: Riya debited, banks settled net at the RBI, and Arjun credited.

    • CR Arjun's savings account at NordbankINR 15,000.00

What this simplifies: One transfer, one half-hourly settlement cycle. Real NEFT nets thousands of payments across many banks in each of its 48 daily cycles, and some banks reach NEFT through a sponsor rather than directly.

Sources for this flow2
  1. Official requirement

    RTGS and NEFTReserve Bank of India

    Describes India RTGS (real-time gross settlement, transaction-by-transaction without netting, final and irrevocable in the books of the Reserve Bank of India; minimum INR 2 lakh, no maximum; 24x7 since 14 December 2020) and NEFT (net settlement in half-hourly batches, 24x7 with 48 half-hourly settlement cycles since December 2019). · Checked 2026-07-14

    RTGS settles gross one payment at a time; NEFT settles net in half-hourly batches. Both are operated by the Reserve Bank of India.

  2. Simplified educational illustration

    Payments Signal editorial teaching modelsPayments Signal

    This site's own simplified teaching models. · Checked 2026-07-12

    What this simplifies: A single transfer shown through one half-hourly cycle; the real batch nets many banks' payments at once, and indirect participation through a sponsor bank is omitted.

    Used wherever diagrams, scenarios, figures, or example values are didactic constructions rather than sourced facts; every such use carries a simplifications disclosure. All people, companies, banks, and list entries in examples are fictional.