RBI's new rules on interchange fee, 24/7 bulk clearing facility functional

The Reserve Bank of India's new directions on raising interchange fee and making available the facility of bulk clearing round the clock have become effective from Sunday onwards.

The RBI in June raised the interchange fee for financial transactions from Rs 15 to Rs 17, while for non-financial transactions the increase was done from Rs 5 to Rs 6.

These new rates have become applicable from August 1, 2021, as per the RBI's direction.

An interchange fee is a fee charged by banks to the merchant who processes a credit card or debit card payment.

Besides, National Automated Clearing House (NACH) has been made available on all days of the week, effective August 1, 2021.

NACH, a bulk payment system operated by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) facilitates one-to-many credit transfers such as payment of dividend, interest, salary and pension.

It also facilitates collection of payments pertaining to electricity, gas, telephone, water, periodic instalments towards loans, investments in mutual funds and insurance premium.

During the bi-monthly monetary policy review in June, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had announced that in order to further enhance the convenience of customers, the NACH will be available on all days of the week.

The facility was available only when banks were open, usually between Monday to Friday. Auto-debit instructions given by the bank account holder were not processed on days the bank were closed like Sundays, bank holidays and even gazetted holidays.

Further, since most companies use NACH for salary credits these also did not happen on bank holidays.

Meanwhile, ICICI Bank has revised charges for cash withdrawals from ATMs, cheque books and other financial transactions from August 1. The revised charges will be applicable for domestic savings account holders including salary accounts.