Nepal Clearing House Limited (NCHL) has revised the timing for making transactions and settlements for Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) from its payment systems as per the official notice from Nepal Rastra Bank issued on 2nd of May, 2021.
According to the notice, NRB has addressed the ongoing second wave of Covid-19 and has requested the concerned all to operate RTGS transactions between the time period of 10:30 AM to 1:00 PM only.
Based upon this notice, Nepal Clearing House Limited (NCHL) has revised the transaction and settlement timing for RTGS transactions via the payment systems like NCHL- ECC, NCHL-IPS and connectIPS.
About RTGS
Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system supports the processing of high-value and urgent transactions between the participating BFIs and for settlement of systemically important payment systems on a net settlement basis. It provides immediate realization of funds and minimizes the settlement risk of the other payment systems. The central RTGS system is implemented and hosted by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB).
connectRTGS is an integration component for integrating banks & financial institutions’ (BFI) internal system with the RTGS system hosted by NRB. It is a gateway to enable the BFIs to initiate and process RTGS transactions. It has an outward module to initiate outgoing transactions and an inward module to process incoming transactions from the RTGS system. It is integrated with the bank’s system to enable full STP for the banks in order to comply with the SLA of the RTGS system prescribed by NRB.
It has been provided to the majority of the commercial banks and will be extended to the development banks and finance companies in the later phase.
What are the updates?
Updates for NCHL-ECC Regular
The presentment start time for regular clearing and settlements under NCHL-ECC system is set to be till 12:00 noon of T-1. It means, the presentment should be placed till 12:00 noon of the day before the transaction. Similarly, the reply cut-off time is set till 1:00 PM of the day. And the settlement would start after 1:30. The regular clearing session is available from Sunday to Thursday.
NCHL has clearly informed that the timings for Express and High-Value cheque clearing are unchanged.
Updates for NCHL-IPS
NCHL has revised the timing for operating RTGS transactions from NCHL-IPS as well. For the Exchange 0, the presentment should be placed within the time period between 12:30 AM to 10:00 AM of the previous day.
Similarly, the reply cut-off time is open from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM on the day of transaction. In addition to that, the settlement would start after 11:00 AM.
In the Exchange 1, the presentment should be placed within the time period of 10:00 Am to 12:00 noon of the transaction day. The reply cut-off period is set till 1:00 PM on the day of transaction. Similarly, the settlement would start after 1:30 PM of the day.
The timings of Exchange 2 and 3 remained unchanged while Exchanges 3 and 4 would remain close until further notice.
You can check this image for the timings of Exchange 2 and 3 which were set previously.
Updates for connectIPS
The presentment timing and reply period for RTGS through connectIPS is open for 24 hours. However, the final settlement is open after 10:30 PM and after 1:30 PM.
Also read: Making Payments Online? Here’s the Transaction Limit on NCHL connectIPS
Regarding the restriction due to the ongoing lockdown, banking hours are also altered these days. Hence, NCHL has made this decision in order to ensure convenient transactions and payments among the banks and financial institutions even in these tough days. This alteration in timings is made effective from 3rd of May, 2021 until further notice.
