The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to slash clearance time for National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) in an attempt to enhance efficiency of the electronic payment system and add to customer convenience.<br/><br/>RBI in the first bi-monthly monetary policy for 2017-18 yesterday said that in line with the document on Vision-2018 for Payment and Settlement Systems, the NEFT settlement cycle will be reduced from hourly batches to half hourly batches.<br/><br/>The newly appointed Deputy Governor B P Kanungo said consequently, 11 additional settlement batches will be introduced at 8.30 am onwards, taking the total number of half hourly settlement batches during the day to 23. <br/><br/>He said this will enhance the efficiency of the NEFT system and add to customer convenience.<br/><br/>RBI said the starting batch at 8 am and closing batch at 7 pm shall remain the same and the return discipline will also remain the same as per the existing practice.