Reserve Bank of India asks banks to speed up cross-border payments

New Delhi, April 09
Reserve Bank of India has asked banks to speed up cross-border payments. In guidelines issued today, the RBI has said that it has been observed that several banks rely upon end-of-day statements of the nostro account for confirming and reconciling receipts in the nostro accounts, resulting in a delay in crediting funds to the beneficiary’s account.

To expedite this process, RBI has asked banks to undertake reconciliation and confirmation of credit in the nostro account frequently, either on a near real-time basis or at periodic intervals. It also said that the reconciliation interval should normally not exceed one hour.

RBI has said that Banks shall endeavour to credit the inward payments received during the foreign exchange market hours within the same business day to the beneficiary’s account and credit the inward payments received after market hours on the next business day, subject to compliance with the extant FEMA and other regulatory requirements.

Guidelines also say that Banks shall inform their customers of the receipt of cross-border inward transactions immediately on receipt of the inward message. Messages received after the close of the operating hours of banks shall be communicated to customers immediately at the start of the next business day. RBI has also asked banks to provide a digital interface to their customers to facilitate foreign exchange transactions, including submission of documents or information and monitoring of transactions.