NEFT stands for National Electronic Funds Transfer, which is an electronic funds transfer system maintained by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) . It was started in November 2005 and enables bank customers in India to transfer funds between any two NEFT-enabled bank accounts on a one-to-one basis via electronic messages. NEFT is regulated by the RBI and works as per the guidelines laid down by it. Some key features of NEFT are:

• NEFT is a one-to-one payment facility.
• NEFT transactions can be processed only between the banks that offer NEFT-enabled services.
• NEFT transactions do not occur in real-time basis and are settled in hourly batches.
• From 16 December 2019, there would be 48 half-hourly batches occurring between 00.30 am to 00:00 am every day regardless of a holiday or otherwise.
• NEFT facilities were available at 1,48,477 branches/offices of 216 banks across the country and online through the website of NEFT-enabled banks as of 30 November 2019.

NEFT is one of the various methods of online money transfer and is popular due to the ease and efficiency with which the transactions can be concluded. NEFT transactions are completely safe and secure as they are regulated by the RBI. Any account holder, whether an individual, firm, or corporate, can carry out NEFT transactions, provided that the banks of both the parties must be NEFT-enabled. NEFT can also be used to pay loan installments, credit card dues, EMIs, etc. . The NEFT system is a standardized way to reliably send money between Indian bank accounts.