Pwc Forwards Rtgs Recos
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has put forward their first round of recommendations on business requirements to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regarding the real time gross settlement (RTGS) system which the latter is expected to set up by November-December.
These recommendations are largely concerned with the kind of architecture that is to be adopted in the setting up of RTGS.
However, the recommendations are yet to be approved by the committee of the National Payments Council which has been appointed to look in to the matter.
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According to sources familiar with the issue, the recommendations include the setting up of a gateway as an interface for transactions. This gateway is expected to be utilised by all the four fund transfer systems which include the central fund management systems, security settlement systems, forex and current account systems. "All transactions could be routed through this. Though it is still possible that the RBI may opt for a direct system," said a source.
A queuing system is likely to be established to ensure settlements to take place in an order. For this purpose the apex bank would be looking for internationally experienced software providers some of whom have already made presentations for the same. In the case of hardware, the RBI has already decided on installing the 390S IBM model.
Other aspects addressed in this first round of recommendations include technicalities like messaging systems as well as the issue of volumes. More importantly the readiness of technological systems of nationalised banks would determine the extent of volumes in this system.
Initially this system would be meant only for nationalised banks and for large transfers of funds. The project is now likely to be completed by November rather than the earlier target date of October 2000. "On the completion of this project the apex bank would be able to run the current accounts of banks on a real time basis," said a source.
Three stages of recommendations have been identified which include the first for business requirements, the second for request and selection of software vendors and the final stage would be implementation.