From January 2020, banks can no longer charge savings bank account holders for…

CONCEPT: For payment-system questions, first separate a funds-transfer system from an identifier or a service channel. RBI fee rules apply to named payment systems such as NEFT or RTGS, while IFSC is only a branch code used for routing.

APPLICATION: The stem asks about the RBI rule effective from January 2020 for savings bank account holders using online transactions. RBI advised banks not to levy charges on savings bank account holders for online NEFT fund transfers from January 1, 2020.

CONTRAST:

• IMPS is an immediate interbank payment service, but the cited January 2020 savings-account fee rule was not framed for IMPS.

• RTGS is a real-time gross settlement system mainly associated with large-value transfers; it is not the system named in this savings-account online-transfer rule.

• IFSC is an 11-character bank-branch identifier used for routing transfers, not a transaction system whose online-transfer charge is being waived.

Result: NEFT is the system covered by the January 2020 no-charge rule for online savings-account transactions.