RBI introduces Beneficiary Name Look-Up for RTGS & NEFT!
From 1st April 2025, banks must enable remitters to verify beneficiary account names before initiating transactions, similar to UPI/IMPS.
A big step for enhancing accuracy and reducing fraud!
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Good move indeed. Useful in avoiding crediting of any amount to wrong account by mistake and going over the hassle of raising chargeback etc…
Definitely beneficial to customers. However, nothing in this page mentions if the banks are allowed to charge for this “service”. Are there more pages to the memo which address this?
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The RBI has directed member banks to implement the facility by April 1, 2025. The feature will be provided to customers free of charge. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has been tasked with developing the facility and onboarding all banks to enable the feature.
Based on the account number and IFSC of the beneficiary entered by the remitter, the facility will fetch the beneficiary’s account name from the bank’s core banking solution (CBS).
The facility will be accessible to remitters through internet and mobile banking as well as at bank branches for in-person transactions. Beneficiary banks will be required to display the account name to the remitter.
Both the remitting and beneficiary banks will need to store data related to the lookup queries and responses as part of the process. However, the NPCI, while responsible for developing the facility, will not be permitted to store any data related to the lookup queries.
Thanks for the additional details @sufimonks. The details also address the question about cost raised in my previous post besides explaining the implementation.
This also poses a privacy risk. Just look up by the account number and you get the name. In many ways, these moves are compromising privacy. Banks should be absolutely private. Unfortunately, privacy in India is something of a concept that nobody grasps.
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An account number, IFSC, PAN number, etc is not designed to be private. It is meant to be quoted somewhere. Forms, sites, etc. govt has designed it like that
And there is nothing someone can do by knowing account number, other than social engineering.
Better to have this than â‚ą1 transfer drama and then headache of getting money back if you transfer wrong
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