Guidelines to Facilitate Faster Cross-Border Inward Payments
Summary
The Reserve Bank of India issued circular RBI/2026-27/08 requiring all scheduled commercial banks to expedite cross-border inward payment processing. Banks must notify customers of incoming cross-border transactions immediately upon receipt and reconcile nostro accounts at intervals not exceeding one hour. Same-day crediting to beneficiary accounts is mandated for payments received during forex market hours, with next-business-day crediting for off-hours receipts.
What changed
The RBI has issued binding guidelines under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act 2007 requiring banks to streamline cross-border inward payment processing. Key mandates include immediate customer notification upon receipt of inward messages, near-real-time or hourly nostro account reconciliation, and same-day beneficiary crediting for payments received during forex market hours. Banks may implement straight-through processing for individual resident accounts based on their risk assessment.
Affected banks must operationalize these requirements within six months of the circular date. Compliance functions should review and update internal payment processing policies, reconciliation workflows, and customer communication systems to align with the new standards. The guidelines align with G20 cross-border payments roadmap targets for faster, more transparent international transfers.
What to do next
- Update customer notification systems to provide immediate alerts for cross-border inward transactions
- Implement nostro account reconciliation at intervals not exceeding one hour
- Establish same-day crediting processes for cross-border payments received during forex market hours
Archived snapshot
Apr 10, 2026GovPing captured this document from the original source. If the source has since changed or been removed, this is the text as it existed at that time.
Notifications
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| Guidelines to facilitate faster cross-border inward payments | |
| | RBI/2026-27/08
CO.DPSS.ID.No.S20/06-08-017/2026-2027
April 09, 2026
The Chairman / Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer
All Scheduled Commercial Banks
Madam / Dear Sir,
Guidelines to facilitate faster cross-border inward payments
The Reserve Bank’s Payments Vision 2025 aims to bring efficiency in the cross- border payments aligning with the G20 roadmap for cross-border payments that has set targets for achieving cheaper, faster, more transparent, and more accessible cross-border payments.
The speed of the cross-border payments is affected by several factors. One of the challenges with speed of payments is experienced at the beneficiary leg i.e., the time taken from receipt of the payment at the beneficiary bank till credit to the beneficiary account.
Review of the extant process for inward cross-border payments indicated the need for streamlining the processes at the beneficiary bank for ensuring timely intimation of payment information and credit to the beneficiary’s account. Accordingly, banks are advised as under:
- Banks shall inform their customer of the receipt of cross-border inward transactions immediately on receipt of inward message. Messages received after close of operating hours of banks shall be informed to customer immediately at the start of the next business day.
- It is observed that several banks rely upon end-of-day statements of the nostro account for confirming and reconciling receipts in nostro accounts, resulting in delay in crediting funds to the beneficiary’s account. To expedite this process, banks are advised to undertake reconciliation and confirmation of credit in the nostro account frequently either on near real time basis or at periodic intervals. The reconciliation interval should normally not exceed one hour.
- Banks shall endeavour to credit the inward payments received during the foreign exchange market hours within the same business day to the beneficiary’s account, and credit the inward payments received after market hours on the next business day, subject to compliance with the extant FEMA and other regulatory requirements.
- Banks may, based on their risk assessment and subject to compliance with extant FEMA guidelines, put in place straight through process for crediting the inward payments to the account of individual residents.
- Banks may, within a reasonable time frame, endeavour to provide digital interface to their customers to facilitate foreign exchange transactions, including submission of documents or information, and monitoring of transactions.
The directions at para 3 above shall be effective six months from the date of this circular.
The directive is issued under Section 10(2) read with Section 18 of Payment and Settlement Systems Act 2007, (Act 51 of 2007).
Yours faithfully,
(Gunveer Singh)
Chief General Manager-in-Charge | | RBI/2026-27/08
CO.DPSS.ID.No.S20/06-08-017/2026-2027
April 09, 2026
The Chairman / Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer
All Scheduled Commercial Banks
Madam / Dear Sir,
Guidelines to facilitate faster cross-border inward payments
The Reserve Bank’s Payments Vision 2025 aims to bring efficiency in the cross- border payments aligning with the G20 roadmap for cross-border payments that has set targets for achieving cheaper, faster, more transparent, and more accessible cross-border payments.
The speed of the cross-border payments is affected by several factors. One of the challenges with speed of payments is experienced at the beneficiary leg i.e., the time taken from receipt of the payment at the beneficiary bank till credit to the beneficiary account.
Review of the extant process for inward cross-border payments indicated the need for streamlining the processes at the beneficiary bank for ensuring timely intimation of payment information and credit to the beneficiary’s account. Accordingly, banks are advised as under:
- Banks shall inform their customer of the receipt of cross-border inward transactions immediately on receipt of inward message. Messages received after close of operating hours of banks shall be informed to customer immediately at the start of the next business day.
- It is observed that several banks rely upon end-of-day statements of the nostro account for confirming and reconciling receipts in nostro accounts, resulting in delay in crediting funds to the beneficiary’s account. To expedite this process, banks are advised to undertake reconciliation and confirmation of credit in the nostro account frequently either on near real time basis or at periodic intervals. The reconciliation interval should normally not exceed one hour.
- Banks shall endeavour to credit the inward payments received during the foreign exchange market hours within the same business day to the beneficiary’s account, and credit the inward payments received after market hours on the next business day, subject to compliance with the extant FEMA and other regulatory requirements.
- Banks may, based on their risk assessment and subject to compliance with extant FEMA guidelines, put in place straight through process for crediting the inward payments to the account of individual residents.
- Banks may, within a reasonable time frame, endeavour to provide digital interface to their customers to facilitate foreign exchange transactions, including submission of documents or information, and monitoring of transactions.
The directions at para 3 above shall be effective six months from the date of this circular.
The directive is issued under Section 10(2) read with Section 18 of Payment and Settlement Systems Act 2007, (Act 51 of 2007).
Yours faithfully,
(Gunveer Singh)
Chief General Manager-in-Charge |
| RBI/2026-27/08
CO.DPSS.ID.No.S20/06-08-017/2026-2027
April 09, 2026
The Chairman / Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer
All Scheduled Commercial Banks
Madam / Dear Sir,
Guidelines to facilitate faster cross-border inward payments
The Reserve Bank’s Payments Vision 2025 aims to bring efficiency in the cross- border payments aligning with the G20 roadmap for cross-border payments that has set targets for achieving cheaper, faster, more transparent, and more accessible cross-border payments.
The speed of the cross-border payments is affected by several factors. One of the challenges with speed of payments is experienced at the beneficiary leg i.e., the time taken from receipt of the payment at the beneficiary bank till credit to the beneficiary account.
Review of the extant process for inward cross-border payments indicated the need for streamlining the processes at the beneficiary bank for ensuring timely intimation of payment information and credit to the beneficiary’s account. Accordingly, banks are advised as under:
- Banks shall inform their customer of the receipt of cross-border inward transactions immediately on receipt of inward message. Messages received after close of operating hours of banks shall be informed to customer immediately at the start of the next business day.
- It is observed that several banks rely upon end-of-day statements of the nostro account for confirming and reconciling receipts in nostro accounts, resulting in delay in crediting funds to the beneficiary’s account. To expedite this process, banks are advised to undertake reconciliation and confirmation of credit in the nostro account frequently either on near real time basis or at periodic intervals. The reconciliation interval should normally not exceed one hour.
- Banks shall endeavour to credit the inward payments received during the foreign exchange market hours within the same business day to the beneficiary’s account, and credit the inward payments received after market hours on the next business day, subject to compliance with the extant FEMA and other regulatory requirements.
- Banks may, based on their risk assessment and subject to compliance with extant FEMA guidelines, put in place straight through process for crediting the inward payments to the account of individual residents.
- Banks may, within a reasonable time frame, endeavour to provide digital interface to their customers to facilitate foreign exchange transactions, including submission of documents or information, and monitoring of transactions.
The directions at para 3 above shall be effective six months from the date of this circular.
The directive is issued under Section 10(2) read with Section 18 of Payment and Settlement Systems Act 2007, (Act 51 of 2007).
Yours faithfully,
(Gunveer Singh)
Chief General Manager-in-Charge | |
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