RBI Domestic Money Transfer Rules 2026: ₹10,000 Cash Pay-Out, ₹50,000 Walk-In NEFT Limits
The RBI domestic money transfer rules 2026 are now a single rulebook. On 11 November 2026 the Reserve Bank of India issued the Reserve Bank of India (Domestic Money Transfer) Directions, 2026 (RBI/DPSS/2026-27/476, CO.DPSS.POLC.No.S843/02-27-019/2026-2027), effective immediately. They fix a cash pay-out limit of ₹10,000 per transaction with a ₹25,000 monthly ceiling per beneficiary, allow a walk-in customer to send up to ₹50,000 through NEFT at a bank branch, and cap cash pay-in through business correspondents and ATMs at ₹5,000 per transaction and ₹25,000 a month per remitter.
The Directions are issued under Section 18 read with Section 10(2) of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007. They apply to scheduled commercial banks, regional rural banks, urban co-operative banks, state co-operative banks, district central co-operative banks and authorised payment system operators and participants, bank and non-bank, to the extent the provisions apply to them. Card-to-card transfers stay outside the framework and continue under the rules for those card products.
Why RBI rewrote the domestic money transfer framework
Domestic money transfer (DMT) began in 2011 as a route for small-value remittances by people who lacked identity or address proof for a bank account, migrant workers being the main users. The 2026 Directions state that purpose in their opening paragraph and keep the safeguards that came with it: transaction limits, monthly ceilings, monitoring.
The rules had been spread across two circulars. The original relaxations came in DPSS.PD.CO.No. 622/02.27.019/2011-2012 of 5 October 2011, which carried the money limits. The second was RBI's July 2024 circular on Domestic Money Transfer, Review of Framework (CO.DPSS.POLC.No.S415/02.27.019/2024-25 dated 24 July 2024), which took effect on 1 November 2024 and added remitter registration, an additional factor of authentication on every transaction, recording of beneficiary details and a cash-remittance flag in the payment message. That 2024 circular set no new limits and left the 2011 amounts in place. Both circulars are now subsumed in the 2026 Directions and repealed.
In substance the Directions consolidate earlier instructions rather than change the limits, a point Business Standard's report of 13 November 2026 also makes. The practical difference is that every limit and condition now sits in one document, with references updated to the Know Your Customer Directions, 2025, the Income-tax Act, 2025 and the Reserve Bank - Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, 2026.
RBI cash transfer limits under the 2026 Directions
The Directions recognise two services. Cash pay-out moves money from a customer's bank account so that a recipient without a bank account can collect it in cash. Cash pay-in lets a person walk in with cash and have it credited to someone else's bank account. The limits differ by service and channel:
| Service and channel | Who uses it | Per transaction | Monthly ceiling |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash pay-out at an ATM, through a business correspondent or other authorised channel | Account holder sending to a recipient without a bank account | ₹10,000 | ₹25,000 per beneficiary |
| Cash pay-in at a bank branch through NEFT | Walk-in customer remitting to a beneficiary's bank account | ₹50,000 | No monthly ceiling stated |
| Cash pay-in through business correspondents, ATMs and similar channels | Walk-in customer remitting to a beneficiary's bank account | ₹5,000 | ₹25,000 per remitter |
Note where each monthly ceiling attaches. For cash pay-out it is counted on the beneficiary, so several payments to the same collecting person add up. For cash pay-in through correspondents and ATMs it is counted on the remitter, so one sender's deposits add up across beneficiaries.
Cash pay-out rules: beneficiary name and address
Paragraph 5 permits banks to transfer funds from their customers' accounts for delivery in cash to recipients who do not have bank accounts, at an ATM, through an agent appointed as business correspondent, or through any other authorised payment channel. Paragraph 6 requires the remitting bank to obtain and keep a record of the beneficiary's name and address. That is the bank's obligation, but in practice the bank will ask the sending customer for these details before the transfer goes through.
Businesses that settle wages of casual or site workers this way should plan around the ₹25,000 monthly ceiling per beneficiary. A contractor paying a worker ₹10,000 on 5 December and another ₹10,000 on 15 December can send only ₹5,000 more to that worker through cash pay-out in December. The rest needs another route, and the most durable one is getting the worker a basic bank account so wages go by NEFT, IMPS or UPI.
Cash pay-in rules: registration, AFA and the cash identifier
For cash pay-in, paragraph 10 requires remitting banks and their business correspondents to register the remitter on the basis of a verified cell phone number and a self-certified Officially Valid Document, as prescribed under the Know Your Customer Directions, 2025. Paragraph 11 requires every transaction to be validated by an Additional Factor of Authentication. A remitter without a working mobile number therefore cannot use the correspondent or ATM route at all.
Paragraphs 13 and 14 deal with the payment message. The remitting bank must include the remitter's details in the IMPS or NEFT message, and the message must carry an identifier marking the transfer as a cash-based remittance. The beneficiary's bank therefore sees both who sent the money and that it started as cash.
Here is how the remitter cap works. Suppose a worker in Surat sends ₹5,000 to his family's account in Bihar through a business correspondent on 2, 9, 16, 23 and 28 November. Those five transfers total ₹25,000, the full monthly cap per remitter. A sixth transfer through a correspondent or ATM in November would be refused. He can still walk into a bank branch and send up to ₹50,000 through NEFT, because the ₹25,000 monthly cap in paragraph 9 applies only to the correspondent and ATM channel.
Cash deposit rules under the Income-tax Act, 2025
Paragraph 12 requires remitting banks and their business correspondents to comply with the provisions of the Income-tax Act, 2025, and the rules and regulations under it, that relate to cash deposits. The Directions do not repeat those provisions, so the bank's existing income-tax controls on cash deposits apply to DMT cash pay-ins as well.
For practitioners, the cash-remittance identifier matters most in this paragraph. Credits that started as cash now carry a marker and remitter details from the sending bank. When a client's bank statement shows a run of small credits from different people, those entries should not be assumed to be ordinary transfers from bank balances. They may need explaining as cash-origin receipts when the client answers a query about the nature and source of credits.
Bank monitoring, charges and complaints
Paragraph 15 requires banks and non-banks to run strong safeguards, including velocity checks and alerts to customers when money is credited through these facilities. Under paragraph 16 any unusual spurt in credits to an account or a group of accounts must be investigated immediately, and paragraph 17 requires suspicious transactions to be reported to the appropriate authorities. Account holders who receive many small DMT credits, such as a shop collecting dues from rural customers through correspondents, may see more alerts and questions from their bank. Inter-bank settlement must use only RBI-approved payment systems, and paragraph 18 expects transfers to be completed in real time or near real time.
On cost, paragraph 20 lets banks and non-banks fix reasonable charges for DMT services with a view to popularising the facility. No fee or cap is prescribed, so charges will differ by bank and correspondent network. Under paragraph 22, complaints about DMT services fall within the Reserve Bank - Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, 2026. A customer who does not get relief from the bank's own grievance system can take the complaint there.
For bank compliance teams and the auditors who review correspondent operations, the checklist is short: remitter registration records with verified mobile numbers and self-certified OVDs, AFA logs for every cash pay-in, beneficiary name and address records for every cash pay-out, the cash identifier in each outgoing IMPS or NEFT message, enforcement of the ₹25,000 monthly ceilings, and documented follow-up on velocity alerts. Process notes that still refer to the 2011 and 2024 circulars, the KYC Master Direction of 2016 or the Income-tax Act, 1961 should now cite the 2026 Directions.
Official source: View the official source document
