Even as it was modernizing paper based transactions, the Reserve Bank was also simultaneously working on retail electronic payment systems such as Electronic Clearing Service (ECS) for bulk payment transactions (credit as well as debit) and an Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) system.
The localised ECS has today metamorphosed into an ECS suite of products: (i) a localised ECS catering to the bank branches of a local clearing house; (ii) a Regional ECS covering all the bank branches of a state or several states as in the North-east; and (iii) a national ECS covering the entire country. Alongside, the EFT has evolved into the pan-India NEFT.