Following is the step-wise flow of NEFT transaction :

• • An individual / firm / corporate willing to transfer funds through NEFT can use the internet / mobile banking facility offered by bank for initiating online funds transfer request. The remitter has to provide details of beneficiary such as, name of the beneficiary, name of the bank branch where the beneficiary has an account, IFSC of the beneficiary bank branch, account type and account number, etc. for addition of the beneficiary to his / her internet / mobile banking module. Upon successful beneficiary addition, the remitter can initiate online NEFT funds transfer by authorizing debit to his / her account.
    Alternatively, the remitter can also visit his / her home branch for initiating NEFT funds transfer through branch / off-line mode. The customer has to fill-in the beneficiary details in NEFT application form available at the branch and authorize the branch to debit to his / her account to the extent of the amount requested in NEFT application form.
  • The originating bank prepares a message and sends the message to its pooling centre, also called the NEFT Service Centre.
  • The pooling centre forwards the message to the NEFT Clearing Centre, operated by the RBI, to be included for the next available batch.
  • The Clearing Centre sorts the funds transfer transactions beneficiary bank-wise and prepares accounting entries to receive funds from the originating banks (debit) and give the funds to the beneficiary banks (credit). Thereafter, bank-wise remittance messages are forwarded to the beneficiary banks through their pooling centre (NEFT Service Centre).
  • The beneficiary banks receive the inward remittance messages from the Clearing Centre and pass on the credit to the beneficiary customers’ accounts.

• • IFSC or Indian Financial System Code is an alpha-numeric code that uniquely identifies a bank-branch participating in the NEFT system. It’s a 11-digit code with the first 4 alpha characters representing the bank, and the last 6 characters representing the branch. The 5th character is 0 (zero). IFSC is used by the NEFT system to identify the originating / destination banks / branches and also to route the messages appropriately to the concerned banks / branches.

The remitting customer has to furnish the following information to a bank for initiating a NEFT remittance:

• • Amount to be remitted
  • The account number to be debited
  • Name of the beneficiary bank and branch
  • The IFSC number of the receiving branch
  • Name of the beneficiary customer
  • Account number of the beneficiary customer
  • Sender to receiver information, if any

• • No. NEFT is a credit-push system i.e., transactions can be originated by the payer / remitter / sender only to pay / transfer / remit funds to beneficiary.

• • If it is not possible to afford credit to the account of the beneficiary for any reason, destination banks are required to return the transaction (to the originating branch) within two hours of completion of the batch in which the transaction was processed.

• • The customer can contact his / her bank / branch if there is an issue of delay / non-credit to the beneficiary account.

• • The remitter and the beneficiary can track status of NEFT transaction by contacting NEFT Customer Facilitation Centre (CFC) of their bank, respectively. Details of NEFT Customer Facilitation Centre of banks are available on the websites of the respective banks For the purpose of faster tracking of transaction, you need to provide few details related to transaction such as Unique Transaction Reference (UTR) number / transaction reference number, date of transaction, etc., to your bank.

• • The credit is given to the account number written / given by remitter in his / her application / instruction. Credit to beneficiary account is released solely based on account number. It is the responsibility of remitting customer to write correct account number. The originator / sender should exercise due care in providing the correct account number of the beneficiary, in the NEFT remittance instruction / application.Remitter can approached his home branch and give an application for wrong credit for further process.

• • Unique Transaction Reference (UTR) number is a 22 character code used to uniquely identify a transaction in NEFT system.