RBI to provide NEFT member banks additional liquidity facility for 24X7 settlement

With round-the-clock National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) facility set to become a reality for members of the public from December 16, the Reserve Bank of India will provide an additional collateralised intra-day liquidity facility called Liquidity Support (LS) to member banks participating in the NEFT payment system.

In a circular to banks participating in NEFT, RBI said the LS facility will be available to facilitate NEFT settlements on a 24x7 basis.

The LS facility will have the same operational terms and conditions as the Intra-Day Liquidity (IDL) facility. All banks eligible for the IDL facility will be eligible to avail of the LS facility.

The Reserve Bank would set the limit for LS facility from time to time. Drawings under the LS facility would be reckoned as part of the eligible IDL limit.

The outstanding drawing at the end of the day under the LS facility will be automatically converted into borrowing under the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF). MSF allows banks to borrow from RBI in case of an emergency, over and above what they can borrow at the repo window.

Reversal of the above MSF borrowing will take place along with other LAF (liquidity adjustment facility) operations as is currently being done.

Liquidity management

To give market participants flexibility and to facilitate liquidity management, as an interim measure, the Reserve Bank has now decided to provide an additional fixed-rate Reverse Repo and Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) window on all days -- Fixed-rate Reverse Repo and MSF (23:00 hrs to 23:59 hrs).