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Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) is a mode of money transfer from one bank account to another in the Indian banking system. The system enabled 24x7x365 real-time, interbank, electronic money transfers when there was only NEFT and RTGS facilities available in India. Citizens could access the facility through multiple channels, such as mobile phone, ATM, the internet, and SMS.
It is built on the National Financial Switch (NFS), managed by NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India), and approved by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). IMPS was introduced in 2012 as a pilot programme by NPCI where only four banks offered the facility—State Bank of India, Bank of India, Union Bank of India, and ICICI Bank. IMPS has now grown to 150+ banks.
NPCI then expanded IMPS and included YES Bank, HDFC Bank, and Axis Bank later that year. On 22nd November, IMPS was launched publically and now includes 53 commercial banks, 101 districts/rural/urban, and cooperative banks.
Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) is a service provided by banks to ensure real-time interbank funds transfer. Unlike NEFT, funds can be transferred on any day of the week including holidays and weekends using IMPS.
IMPS aims to make electronic funds transfer easy and convenient for customers and to support the RBI’s goal of electronification of retail payments. IMPS has built the foundation for a full range of mobile banking services.
There are four major participating parties for an IMPS transaction to take place:
Customers can use the IMPS service to:
In order to make a payment or transfer funds through IMPS, you must have at least one of the following details about the beneficiary:
IMPS can be, typically, carried out 24/7. Some bank may have time restrictions when it comes to adding a new beneficiary to make a new funds transfer. Some bank imposes a time restriction on adding beneficiaries for the sake of IMPS transfer.
For example, SBI only allows you to add new beneficiary from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. If you add a new beneficiary beyond after 8 p.m., it will be available for IMPS money transfer only after 6 a.m. the next day. Therefore, check with your bank about the timings for IMPS transfer.
Generally, the transaction limit for IMPS transfer is set to be Rs.2 lakh. However, banks may define their own upper limit for an IMPS transaction. Also, the transaction limits may be stringent for the first few days after you add a new beneficiary. Check with your bank and confirm the limit before you initiate a transaction.
Every IMPS transaction you make is associated with a certain fee. The fee depends on the amount that is to be transferred. In addition, the goods and services tax is also applicable at 18%. The table below gives the calculation of transaction charges for IMPS:
| Amount to Transfer | Transaction Charges (Excluding GST) |
| <=Rs.10,000 | Rs.2.5 |
| Rs.10,001-Rs.1 lakh | Rs.5 |
| Rs.1 lakh-Rs.2 lakh | Rs.15 |
The charges, however, may vary depending on the individual bank’s discretion.
You can make IMPS money transfer through the following methods:
The generic procedure to make an IMPS transfer is given below.
Step 1: Choose the channel you would like to transfer money with and log in with your credentials.
Step 2: Enter the MMID and mobile number of the recipient. Instead, you can enter the bank account number and IFSC or Aadhaar number as well.
Step 3: Enter the amount you would like to transfer.
Step 4: Enter the remarks or the purpose of the money transfer.
Step 5: Now, enter your PIN to authenticate the transfer request.
Step 6: Transfer will be initiated successfully. Once done, both the sender and the receiver will get an SMS confirming the same.
If your IMPS transaction times out or fails, check if your money has been debited from the account. If the money is not debited, you can wait for a few minutes and strike another transaction. In another case, if the money is debited from your account, check your account after two working days. The debited money would have been credited to your account. Otherwise, check with the beneficiary to know if he/she has received the money. If not, contact the customer care executive of your bank for assistance.
Though NEFT and IMPS are the two methods of interbank money transfer, they are different in their own ways. An NEFT transaction can be initiated only during business hours. Initiating an NEFT transaction after business hours, the transaction will be completed only the following business day. No transaction fees are applicable.
However, a money transfer transaction can be initiated and completed at any time irrespective of the bank working hours in the case of IMPS. Despite incurring a transaction fee, IMPS is mostly preferred as the beneficiary gets the funds immediately in their account.
RTGS is similar to NEFT in the sense that it is a timed service. The transfer process can be initiated between 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and 7 a.m. to 7:45 p.m. for inter-bank transfers. Also, RTGS is specific for transactions worth Rs.2 lakh and above. In contrast, the upper limit of IMPS transactions is Rs.2 lakh or as defined by the bank. When it comes to the operational hours, a user can initiate a transaction at any time of the day, though a few conditions apply.
You can choose one of the following modes to make an IMPS transaction:
